The US may be on the verge of a ‘doom loop.’ Can this fix it?
The unstable Midtown high-rise is the location of a project to convert Pfizer’s old headquarters into apartments. It’s an ambitious architectural undertaking that is part of a trend of converting former offices to apartments.
The building conversion is being developed by Metro Loft and David Werner Real Estate Investments with architectural firm Gensler. The renovation focuses on adjoining buildings at 219 and 235 East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, just by Grand Central Terminal.
The project includes building 19 new stories atop an existing 10-story structure at 219 East 42nd and “reconfiguring and recladding” the adjoining 33-story tower at 235 East 42nd, according to Gensler. It’s slated to be completed in 2027.
The planned building would include roughly 1,600 apartments, making it the largest office-to-apartment conversion project in New York City history, according to Gensler. About 25% of the planned apartments — 400 units — are slated to be affordable housing units.
Robert Fuller, a principal at Gensler, told Bloomberg in 2025: “It’s quite a bit of surgery,” referring to the Pfizer building conversion. “There’s just a lot of technical challenges and unique conditions from floor to floor. All those things collectively make this quite a unique endeavor and I would argue probably more challenging than any other one I can think of.”
These conversions can reinvent out-of-use buildings and create more housing in cities that are lacking in supply. Office-to-apartment conversions have ballooned in popularity since the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in hybrid and remote work, emptying many office spaces.
Metro Loft previously co-developed 25 Water Street in downtown Manhattan. That conversion transformed JPMorgan Chase’s old offices into 1,320 apartments.
Nathan Berman, founder at Metro Loft, told The New York Times in 2025 that converting old office buildings into apartments helps remove “the millions of feet of space that are essentially obsolete.”
“They can’t compete as office buildings anymore, and we’re taking them, sort of, out of the race,” he said.
