The
Manhattan Company was established by
Aaron Burr in 1799, ostensibly to provide clean water to Lower Manhattan. The company's true focus was banking, and it served as a competitor to
Alexander Hamilton's
Bank of New York, which previously held a monopoly over banking in New York City. The Manhattan Company was headquartered at a
row house at 40 Wall Street, By the early 20th century, the company was growing quickly, having acquired numerous other banks.
Development Planning The idea for the current skyscraper was devised by banker George L. Ohrstrom, who began acquiring land for the building in 1928 under the auspices of 36 Wall Street Corporation. Stakeholders in the corporation included Ohrstrom and the builders, Starrett Brothers (later Starrett Corporation). By that December, Ohrstrom had purchased four buildings, with frontage along 27–33 Pine Street and 34–38 Wall Street, and controlled a total area of . The plans had been updated, and the syndicate at that point envisioned a 45-story building. That March, Ohrstrom announced that H. Craig Severance would design a 47-story structure at 36 Wall Street. The corporation bought 25 Pine Street the same month. Shortly after Severance's original plans were announced, the skyscraper was modified to have 60 floors, which was shorter than the
Woolworth Building and the then under construction
Chrysler Building. Plans for a 64-story skyscraper were announced after the Manhattan Company agreed to relocate to the new building in early April 1929. By April 8, Ohrstrom and Severance had planned to make the new skyscraper the world's tallest building. Two days later, it was announced that Severance had increased the tower's height to with 62 floors, exceeding the heights of the Woolworth and Chrysler buildings. It was also announced that the Manhattan Company would be 36 Wall Street's main tenant and that the new building would be known as the Bank of Manhattan Building or the Manhattan Company Building. The builders intended to spend large sums to reduce the construction period to one year, which would allow rental tenants to move into the building sooner. The Manhattan Company and Chrysler buildings started competing for the distinction of "
world's tallest building". The "Race into the Sky", as popular media called it at the time, was representative of the country's
optimism in the 1920s, fueled by the building boom in major cities. The Manhattan Company Building was revised to in April 1929, which would make it the world's tallest. Severance then publicly claimed the title of the world's tallest building,
Start of construction Construction of the Manhattan Company Building began in May 1929. By that time, the syndicate developing the building was known as the 40 Wall Street Corporation, and the building was also known as 40 Wall Street. That same month, the Manhattan Company leased its lots at 40–42 Wall Street and 35–39 Pine Street to the 40 Wall Street Corporation for 93 years. Ownership would be divided among the Manhattan Company, the Iselin family, and the 40 Wall Street Corporation, with the Manhattan Company holding a plurality stake. Simultaneously, the U.S. government invited bids on the adjoining building at 28–30 Wall Street, then occupied by a federal
assay office. The assay office plot was reserved for future expansion, instead of being incorporated into the plans for the new skyscraper. The Manhattan Company moved to a temporary headquarters during construction. Starrett Brothers had drawn up a detailed construction schedule for 40 Wall Street, outlining the timeline for each major construction contract. The schedule indicated that structural-steel installation would commence in June 1929 and that all work was to be completed by May 1, 1930. To save money and time, the foundation of 40 Wall Street was constructed at the same time that buildings on the site were being cleared. The old Manhattan Company building was the last to be cleared. Workers excavated the site to the underlying layer of bedrock, which extended as much as deep. They then installed several dozen hollow cylinders, each measuring wide. In addition, workers installed several hundred steel pilings, which were clustered into piers, infilled with concrete, and topped by steel caps that could accommodate structural loads of up to . Work on 40 Wall Street progressed quickly, and the contractors completed four stories each week. The site was active 24 hours a day, with 2,300 workers working in three shifts; interior furnishing progressed as the steel frame rose. The steel frame for 40 Wall Street was manufactured in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; transported to
Jersey City, New Jersey, using 800 railcars; shipped across the
Hudson River via barge; and transported from the dock to the construction site via truck.
Derricks then lifted the steel beams into place, where groups of four workers riveted them onto the frame. As the tower rose, the derricks were themselves lifted two stories at a time. The building
topped out on November 13, 1929. By that time, the steel frame had reached above street level, the facade had been completed to the 54th story, and much of the internal furnishing had been completed. By December, rental agents Brown, Wheelock, Harris, Vought & Company were leasing out the space at the Chrysler and Manhattan Company buildings, which aggregated . The 40 Wall Street Corporation gave a $12.5 million mortgage for the building's completion in December 1929, and the corporation planned a
bond issue of an equivalent value by January 1930. The building's roof was covered with scaffolding by March 1930, although Manhattan Company officials denied that they were trying to increase the building's height. The work was completed one week ahead of schedule, on May 1, 1930. Several workers received craftsmanship awards in a ceremony at the end of April 1930. The building officially opened on May 26. In total, $24 million had been spent on construction. Four workers died while constructing 40 Wall Street; a similar mortality rate to other contemporary projects of similar scale.
Early years Competition for "world's tallest building" title . Plans for the Empire State Building were changed multiple times; the final plan, published in December 1929, called for the building to be tall. becoming the world's tallest building both by roof height and spire height. Because of late changes to the plans of both 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, as well as the fact that the buildings were erected nearly simultaneously, it is uncertain whether 40 Wall Street was ever taller than the Chrysler Building.
John Tauranac, who wrote a book about the Empire State Building's history, later stated that if 40 Wall Street had "ever had been the tallest building, they would have had bragging rights, and if they did, I certainly never heard them". If only completed structures are counted, 40 Wall Street was the world's tallest building for one month,
Early tenants and foreclosure The new building housed four Manhattan Company subsidiaries: the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company, the
International Acceptance Bank, the
International Manhattan Company, and the Bank of Manhattan Safe Deposit Company. Among the first tenants were
Merrill Lynch & Co. and a private lunch club called the Wall Street Club. 40 Wall Street opened following the
Wall Street Crash of 1929, and so suffered from a lack of tenants. As a result, only half of the space in 40 Wall Street was leased during the 1930s. For the first five years of the building's existence, 40 Wall Street Corporation was able to pay the $323,200 interest on the second mortgage-bond issue. That May, the
Marine Midland Trust Company started
foreclosure proceedings against the corporation after it
defaulted on "payments of interest, taxes and other charges". In response, several bondholders formed a committee to protect their stakes; the committee expressed opposition to the proposed reorganization. In July 1939, the corporation filed a plan to reorganize all assets that were not covered by the mortgage loans. Marine Midland became the trustee of 40 Wall Street's first-mortgage fee and its bonds on the lease in February 1940, supplanting the corporation. Marine Midland, acting on behalf of the bondholders, acquired the building that September in a transaction worth almost $11.5 million.
The New York Times later described the building as being "a monument to lost hope" during that era: at the time, the building's $1,000
debentures were being sold at $108.75 apiece. C. F. Noyes was hired as the building's leasing agent at the end of 1940. One of the larger tenants during the 1940s was the
Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, which in 1941 leased four floors. Other tenants included real-estate agents, lawyers, brokers, and bankers, as well as a short-film theater in 1941. More tenants came during
World War II, starting with the
United States Department of the Navy. Many large tenants such as
Prudential Financial, Westinghouse, and
Western Union signed long-term leases. At the time, 40 Wall Street's office space was renting for , a relatively high price for a building constructed before air conditioning became popular. The month after the crash, the owners of 40 Wall Street filed a building application with the Department of Buildings to fix the hole in the facade. The incident prompted the Army, in June 1946, to ban planes from landing in New York City during heavy fog. It was the last time a plane crashed into a building in New York City in the 20th century.
1950s to 1970s Chase relocation and Webb & Knapp acquisition is to the right,
Federal Hall National Memorial is to the left, and 30 Wall Street is in the foreground.|alt=The building as seen from street level. 23 Wall Street is to the right, Federal Hall National Memorial is to the left, and 30 Wall Street is in the foreground. In August 1950, the building's owners submitted plans for an alteration of the building at a cost of $300,000. Over the following years, the building was retrofitted with air conditioning. The directors of the Manhattan Company and
Chase National Bank voted in January 1955 to merge their respective companies, and
Chase Manhattan Bank was created as a result of the merger. The new company was headquartered at Chase National's previous building at 20 Pine Street, immediately north of 40 Wall Street; Meanwhile, several offices as well as a bank branch remained in 40 Wall Street. eventually increasing their stake to two-thirds of the corporation's shares. The firm attempted to sell 40 Wall Street in October 1957 for $15 million, but a
New York Supreme Court justice
enjoined the sale in November 1957 after several minority shareholders claimed the sale was illegal. The corporation's stockholders voted in June 1959 to sell the building for no less than $17 million. To reduce disagreements, a State Supreme Court justice ordered that an auction be held for the building. That October, stockholders held an auction for 40 Wall Street. Zeckendorf submitted the highest bid, at $18.15 million, although there was only one other bidder. At the time, 40 Wall Street was believed to be the most valuable real-estate property ever to be auctioned in New York City. Chase Manhattan was relocating to its new headquarters at 28 Liberty Street, That September, Webb and Knapp sold the leasehold to British investors City & Central Investments (later City Centre Properties) for $15 million. The sale was finalized in November 1960, and City & Central acquired title that following month. The new operator renovated the interior and exterior. City Centre sold the leasehold to
Loeb, Rhoades & Co., 40 Wall Street's largest tenant, in June 1966. Other major tenants at the time included
Bache & Co., which had rented by 1966. After Loeb, Rhoades & Co. merged with
Shearson in 1980, the of office space occupied by Loeb, Rhoades & Co. was vacated; the space was quickly leased to
Morgan Guaranty and
Toronto-Dominion Bank. At the time, 40 Wall Street had that was not yet rented, and office space in the Financial District was typically rented for .
1980s and early 1990s In 1982, the property was purchased by a German investment group headed by
Walter Hinneberg. Hinneberg and two of his siblings transferred their 80 percent ownership stake to an entity named 40 Wall Street Holdings Corporation in 1992. The other two owners conveyed their combined 20 percent stake to an entity named New Scandic Wall Ltd.
Marcos family leasehold At the end of 1982, Loeb, Rhoades & Co. sold the leasehold to a holding company; the Philippine dictator
Ferdinand Marcos and his wife
Imelda would be revealed as the real buyers in 1985. According to a broker who was involved in the sale, the Marcos family's agents, brothers Joseph J. and Ralph E. Bernstein, were initially believed to be buying the building for the wealthy Gaon family of Switzerland, as Joseph Bernstein's wife was a member of that family. The operators planned to gild 40 Wall Street's roof. In coded cables between the Marcos family and their alleged "front" in Manhattan, Gliceria Tantoco, the 40 Wall Street building was referred to using the secret code-word "Bridgetown". By February 1986, 40 Wall Street's leasehold, and three other buildings reportedly owned by the Marcoses, were placed for sale. Around that time, the Bernsteins were contemplating paying $250 million for 40 Wall Street and two of the other buildings. After Marcos was forced out of office, the administration of his successor
Corazon Aquino froze Marcos's assets within U.S. banking channels in March 1986, and the building's future became uncertain.
Citicorp, which had placed a mortgage on the building, indicated in December 1986 that it would foreclose on the property. After the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled to block the sale of the Marcos properties that November, the Aquino administration filed a lawsuit against the Marcos estate to obtain title to the buildings. The Bernsteins alleged that they paid $235 million for 40 Wall Street, Herald Center, and the
Crown Building, but the Philippine government claimed that the sale was never finalized. The Saudi arms dealer
Adnan Khashoggi also claimed to be involved with the building's purchase; he asserted that he had owned the building for several years before the Bernsteins' alleged purchase. although he was acquitted of all racketeering charges in relation to the properties. Capital improvements to the building, including upgrades to its unreliable elevators, were suspended while legal proceedings were ongoing. The Aquino administration attempted in early 1989 to sell the four Marcos properties to Morris Bailey for $398 million. Federal district court judge
Pierre N. Leval ordered a foreclosure sale of the Marcos properties in August 1989; the Bailey group hoped that Citigroup would name them as the preferred bidders. The Bernstein brothers paid the $1.5 million
down payment, but they could not pay the remainder of the purchase price before the October 10, 1989, deadline. At the time, the Bernsteins were also involved in a bankruptcy proceeding in
Curaçao; a
special master there had refused to repeal a bankruptcy action that would have allowed the Bernsteins to pay the remainder of 40 Wall Street's purchase price.
Resnick operation and further issues At a second auction in November 1989, Burton Resnick of Jack Resnick & Sons paid $77,000,100 for the leasehold, beating Citicorp's bid by $100. By then, demand for real estate in Lower Manhattan had declined in the aftermath of
Black Monday in 1987. The Resnicks were only able to upgrade the windows; Citicorp canceled financing for the renovation that year, citing concerns that tenants, including Manufacturers Hanover, which had moved from the lower stories of the building in 1982, might move out. By the early 1990s, 40 Wall Street was 80 percent vacant. The building's maintenance had declined to the point that tenants reported that they frequently waited 20 minutes for an elevator, and many interior spaces had been stripped to the steel frame. In 1992, Citicorp prepared to sell 40 Wall Street again; the asking price was reportedly as low as $10 million. Citicorp auctioned off the building in May 1993; Hong Kong firm Glorious Sun considered buying the building but ultimately decided against it. Another group from Hong Kong, the consortium Kinson Properties, agreed to lease the property, Kinson planned to renovate the building for $60 million, including the lobby for $4 million and electrical and mechanical systems for $5–7 million. The leasehold was transferred that December. while ''
Barron's'' cited the leasehold as having cost between $3 million and $5 million. In November 1995, Trump stated that he was buying the leasehold from Kinson for $100,000. On a 2007 episode of CNBC's
The Billionaire Inside, Trump again claimed that he paid $1 million for the leasehold but stated the building's value as $600 million. In 2012, it was reported that Trump paid $10 million for the leasehold. Estimates of the building's worth also varied. City tax assessors had valued the building at $90 million by 2000 and reported that the building was worth the same amount in 2004. While Trump estimated the building's worth at $1 billion in 2012, Trump maintained in 2013 that the building was worth $530 million. and
Bloomberg News estimated the next year that 40 Wall Street was worth $550 million.
Der Scutt Architects renovated the lobby, Trump had planned to rent out some space as
studio apartments and one- to three-bedroom apartments, but real-estate experts, quoted in the
New York Daily News, said the lowest 25 floors were so large that it would not be profitable to convert them to apartments. Among these chains was
Marriott International, which proposed operating a
Ritz-Carlton hotel on either ten or twelve stories. At the time, the building was about 25 percent occupied. By 1998, almost all of the space in the building had been leased. Several large tenants, such as
American Express,
CNA Financial Corporation,
Bear Stearns,
Nomura Holdings, Country-Wide Insurance Company,
Hilton Hotels & Resorts, and
Union Bank of California, had moved into 40 Wall Street after its renovation. Trump tried to sell the building in 2004, expecting offers in excess of $400 million,
The New York Times wrote in 2005 that the building had $145 million of debt. 40 Wall Street Ltd. transferred its ownership stake in the building to 40 Wall Street Holdings in 2014. At the time, Trump leased the building for $1.65 million a year,
Forbes estimated in 2020 that Trump owed Ladder Capital $138 million for 40 Wall Street as part of a loan that was scheduled to
mature in 2025.
2020s to present New York prosecutors had
scrutinized several of the
Trump Organization's properties by 2021, at the end of Trump's
first presidency. They found that, between 2011 and 2015, far higher values were presented to potential lenders than were reported to tax officials. The most extreme case involved 40 Wall Street, which in 2012 was cited as being worth $527 million to lenders but only $16.7 million to tax officials. By February 2023, the building had been placed on a lender watchlist because of its rising vacancy rate, which had reached 18 percent in late 2022, and its maintenance costs, which had risen 11 percent since the mortgage was issued in 2015.
Fitch Ratings downgraded the credit rating for the building's loans in August 2023 because new tenants were slow to move into the building while old tenants relocated elsewhere. The building's Duane Reade location closed later that year due to shoplifting, Following a January 2024 ruling in which the Trump Organization was found liable for civil fraud, New York Attorney General
Letitia James said her office was prepared to seize the building if the organization could not repay a $355 million judgment. By that April, the building's vacancy rate had increased to 21 percent, and the building's mortgage loan was scheduled to come due in 2025. The building had become a tourist attraction, and
The Washington Post wrote that Trump's detractors sometimes came to the building to express their animosity. A reporter for
Curbed wrote in late 2024 that 40 Wall Street was so controversial, even in the real estate industry, that few people in that industry were willing to publicly discuss the building's finances. At the time, the retail space and several floors were vacant. The building's credit rating was downgraded further in March 2025, and the Trump Organization paid off the $114 million balance on its loan from Ladder Capital that June. By the next month, one-fourth of the building had been vacant for a year, and the property's annual income was $2 million less than its mortgage payments. An Italian food hall, Nerolab, also opened in the building in mid-2025. == Impact ==