Context American Express was started as an
express mail business in 1850. By the late 19th century, it made the largest amount of its profit from moving currency and valuables. The first American Express building was erected at
Vesey Street, on the northern border of the Financial District, in 1854; it was used by the company's stables. which at the time was said to be New York City's largest building. In 1874, American Express's headquarters relocated to a pair of five-story brownstone buildings at 63-65 Broadway. Later on,
Wells Fargo Express Company also occupied space there. By the 1880s, the Hudson Street headquarters was torn down; it was replaced by a structure designed by
Edward H. Kendall in 1890–1891. American Express bought the Broadway buildings from the Harmony family in 1902. At that point, American Express was New York City's second-largest financial services company. American Express president George Chadbourne Taylor had devised the idea for the new headquarters.
The New York Times had described the brownstone pair as being "among the ancient landmarks" on the lower section of Broadway. Work on the structure restarted in 1916; the new plans were cheaper, costing $1 million. The reduced height was likely to comply with the
1916 Zoning Resolution, which mandated that
setbacks be included in buildings above a mandated height. By that October, all except one floor in the American Express Building were occupied. As originally laid out, the sub-basement (below the Trinity Place basement) contained power generation plants for the building. The first floor contained lobbies and the travel department, and the second floor contained the Foreign Department. The third floor housed a general cashier's department; the fourth floor included the treasurer's office force and financial traffic department; the fifth floor had the offices of several departments; the sixth through eleventh stories were for the accounting department; and the 20th floor was for chief officials' offices. At first, the 12th through 19th floors were unoccupied, as was the 21st floor. On the city block where the building was located, there was a continuous series of masonry structures. The new bank opened that April. The branch was to have $15 million in deposits, as well as a wide range of services.
J.& W. Seligman & Co. moved into the building's top three floors in 1940, occupying the space until 1974. Other tenants of 65 Broadway included
Moody's Investors Service, and National Investors Corporation. The company planned to sell off 65 Broadway as part of this relocation. and in December 1978 installed a large bronze sculpture of its insignia, an eagle grasping an anchor, designed by
Greg Wyatt, atop the building. The total cost of ABS's purchase plus renovation of 65 Broadway was projected to be approximately $5 million. As of early 1979, American Express retained about 15,000 square feet of rented office space in the building. During the shipping depression of the mid-1980s, as a cost-saving measure the American Bureau of Shipping moved its headquarters to New Jersey, After 65 Broadway's then-owners
defaulted on the building's
mortgage,
Aetna had purchased the building by 1994. Afterward, Standard & Poor's renamed the building for itself. and formally granted the designation on December 12, 1995. After Standard & Poor's announced its intention to move out of the building in 1998, its owner Jeff Wasserman began planning to renovate it, adding telephone service to attract tenants. In 2007, the building was designated as a contributing property to the
Wall Street Historic District, a
National Register of Historic Places district. By the 21st century,
Joseph Chetrit's Chetrit Group and AM Property Group had purchased 65 Broadway in a
joint venture. Chetrit bought out AM Property's ownership stake in 2014, in exchange for selling a property stake in 80 and
90 Maiden Lane. In 2016, Chetrit hired RKF to lease out the office space at 65 Broadway, The building's occupancy rate declined during the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, and Chetrit's $151.5 million loan on the building went into
special servicing in early 2024. The American Express Building was revalued at $104 million that June, and Chetrit had paid back the outstanding debt on the loan by that month. At the time, 35 percent of the building was vacant. == See also ==