Gillender Building - Takeover

Takeover

In 1909, the Financial District experienced a rapid series of land acquisitions by financial institutions. The Bankers Trust Company joined the process after Bank of Montreal, Fourth National Bank, and Germania Insurance acquired their properties on Wall and Nassau Streets. Bankers Trust, which was established in 1902, had been a tenant at Gillender Building for six years and their choice of site was motivated by its location near the New York Stock Exchange. The company, with J. P. Morgan on the board, grew rapidly and intended to land itself permanently in the "vortex of America's financial life".

In July 1909, Bankers Trust signed a long-term lease agreement with the Sampson family, owners of the Stevens Building; lease was preferred to purchase due to high price of Wall Street land. Located on the same Wall-Nassau block as the Gillender Building, the L-shaped, seven-story Stevens Building wrapped around it and possessed far longer facades on both Wall and Nassau Streets. Initially, the press reported that Bankers Trust planned to build a 16-story office building wrapping around the Gillender Building, with the two bottom floors outfitted to be "one of the finest banking rooms in the city". Later, it was disclosed that they had been negotiating purchase of Gillender Building since April 1909; the deal would have consolidated enough Wall Street land for a new tower with 94 feet (29 m) frontage facing Wall Street and 102 feet (31 m) on Nassau Street.

In December 1909, The New York Times reported a new record set: The Manhattan Trust Company, a bank connected to Bankers Trust through common control by J. P. Morgan, acquired the Gillender Building from Helen Gillender Asinari, paying approximately $1,500,000 for the property occupying 1,825 square feet (169.5 m2), or $822 for a square foot of Manhattan land that was worth $55,000 sixty years earlier. Negotiations were in progress since April 1909 and the sale was virtually closed in November.

On January 2, 1910, the press reported that the Manhattan Trust has resold the building; Bankers Trust, the new owner, completed consolidation of a large corner property. By April 1910, the final cash price paid to Manhattan Trust was adjusted to $1,250,000; in exchange for the $250,000 difference, the Manhattan Trust retained long-term lease rights for the ground floor "and some other space in the building". This brought nominal cash price per foot on par or below the earlier record ($700 per square foot for a lot on the corner of Wall Street and Broadway). Contemporaries agreed that the Manhattan Trust and Bankers Trust acted in accord and that the latter targeted Gillender Building from the start. Bankers Trust absorbed Manhattan Trust Company in February 1912.

The press anticipated the upcoming demolitionof the Gillender Building "as the first time when such a high-class office building representing the best type of fire-proof construction" would be torn down and "one of the largest building operations ever undertaken in New York". Bankers Trust publicized the drafts by Trowbridge & Livingston to build a 39-story tower that, when announced, would be New York's third tallest building after the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower and the Singer Building built in 1909 and 1908, respectively.