Airbnb is reestablishing its New York foothold with an $81.5M purchase of a Gramercy Park office building, acquiring a property so lavish it feels less like a workplace than one of the company’s luxury rental listings.
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The company, which has largely been banned from operating in the city, purchased the 40K SF Beaux-Arts landmark property at 281 Park Ave. S. from Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’ RFR.
San Francisco-based Airbnb will likely use the medieval-inspired building as a fortress as it continues its campaign against Local Law 18. Passed in 2022, the legislation imposed restrictions that slashed the number of short-term rentals in the city from over 60,000 to just 3,000.
Airbnb tried to block the legislation before it passed and has continued to push for its repeal. The company has spent roughly $1M on lobbying efforts every year since 2022, according to Open Secrets. It also donated 1,000 World Cup tickets to youth organizations in New York and New Jersey, as well as spent over $1M to build new soccer minipitches in the area, in an effort to win the support of locals.
In a statement, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the building will be one of the company’s largest employee hubs outside of San Francisco.
“New York City has been part of our story since the earliest days of Airbnb,” Chesky said. “We're excited to keep investing in the city and the people who make it extraordinary.”
Known as the Church Missions House, the six-story building was designed by church architects Robert W. Gibson and Edward J. Neville and constructed in 1894. It was commissioned by a group of donors including railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt and banker J. Pierpont Morgan to support the Episcopal Church’s missionary work.
The building later became known for its connection to fraudster Anna Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey. The con artist, who posed as an heiress to gain access to New York City’s elite social scenes, had sought to open a private members' club and art foundation in the building before her arrest in 2017.
That same year, Fotografiska New York leased the entire building from RFR for its museum. The gallery closed in 2024.
RFR first put 281 Park Ave. S. on the market in 2022, asking $135M. The developer has rearranged its portfolio in recent years. Several properties, including the Chrysler Building, have been lost to foreclosure or eviction, while others have been willingly sold to free up cash.
That’s allowed Rosen’s firm to maintain ownership of some of his prized assets, such as the Seagram Building, which was refinanced last year with a $1.2B CMBS loan.
RFR was represented by Avison Young’s James Nelson, Alexandra Marolda, Brent Glodowski and Lea Voytovich, alongside Serhant’s Ryan Serhant and Bernadette Brennan.
