444 Madison Goes for $313 Million
When New York magazine moved into 444 Madison Avenue, it was a young magazine in its late twenties. Rupert Murdoch had just sold his stake and the magazine's full floors—for the most part, 13 (edit), 14 (art) and 15 (ad sales)—represented a new era. The Newsweek sign came down and in its stead the now iconic New York sign went up. Folklore has it that Murdoch personally insisted on the signage. But now New York magazine is heading downtown, and the building is collapsing around them.
According to the Post's crazy-tie-wearing Steve Cuozzo:
The deal is worth about $660 a square foot - a remarkable number for a prewar property, even in a booming market.
But who could resist paying that much for magazine history? 660 dollars for the chance to shuffle papers in the same space occupied by Amy Sohn's first Naked City copy back in '01? (It was about Washington D.C. interns! How quaint!) $660 to roll around in ergonomic chairs over the thin institutional carpet where so many story pitches have deteriorated like autumn's leaves? For Kurt Andersen's time-worn open-plan office design? As for the rest, we'll never know. As the magazine's spokesperson Serena Torrey told us, "What happens at 444 Madison stays at 444 Madison."
