The massacre at one of the premiere buildings in Manhattan on Monday struck at the heart of the Big Apple’s post-pandemic resiliency.
Before mass murderer Shane Tamura left four innocent people dead after waltzing into 345 Park Ave., the famed boulevard had regained its top-dog status after years of corporate attrition to Hudson Yards and other areas.
Park Avenue office vacancies are as low as 1% from Grand Central Terminal to East 59th Street.
The 1969-vintage 345 Park between East 51st and East 52rd streets stands amidst landmarks such as the Seagram Building and Lever House.
Behind its boxy-looking facade are a cross-section of diverse businesses that proclaim Manhattan’s power and glory — accounting/consulting firm KPMG, real estate powerhouse Blackstone Group, the NFL, law firm Loeb & Loeb, and the Rudin organization that owns the tower.
Blackstone signed the city’s largest office lease of 2024 at 345 Park — over one million square feet. The Rudin company, a legendary New York dynasty, plans to develop a new skyscraper with billionaire Ken Griffin for his hedge fund Citadel across the street at 350 Park Ave.
Here is the latest on the NYC mass shooting:
The NFL, Tamura’s apparent intended target, is the most profitable sports league in the world, with annual revenue of nearly $20 billion — almost as much as for the NBA and MLB combined.
When the announcers say of a disputed play, “They’ll review it in New York,” they mean at the Art McNally GameDay Central facility at 345 Park Ave.
The avenue throbs with renewed energy up and down. JPMorgan Chase’s new skyscraper will open next month. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel just reopened after an eight-year restoration, looking better than ever.
Developer David W. Levinson, who built 425 Park Avenue a few blocks north and filled it with tenants paying up to $300 per square foot, said, “Park Avenue is the grandest boulevard of commerce in the world, with the best-quality buildings and the most prestigious tenants.”
But however well-protected, they can still be vulnerable to the rogue act of “what appears to be a very sick person. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families,” Levinson said.
How the shooting unfolded
- Reports of the shooting at 345 Park Ave. start coming in around 6:28 p.m.
- Shane Tamura, 27, is seen getting out of a black BMW between 51st and 52nd streets with an M4 rifle.
- He enters the lobby and turns right, where he shoots police officer Didarul Islam, 36, dead.
- Tamura guns down a woman cowering behind a pillar in the lobby, sprays more bullets and walks toward the elevator bank — where he shoots dead a security guard crouching at his desk.
- One more man reports being shot and injured in the lobby. He was in critical but stable condition.
- The gunman allows a woman to walk out of the elevators unharmed before heading up to the 33rd floor, where building owner Rudin Properties’ offices are located, “and begins to walk the floor, firing as he traveled.”
- One woman is shot and killed on that floor before Tamura shoots himself in the chest.
- It’s unclear how long the mayhem lasted. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch posted on X at 7:52 p.m.: “The scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”
The madman’s rampage reminds us that evil can strike the most secure-seeming location, even in the best of times.
But the ghastly event likely won’t lay a scratch on Park Avenue’s fortune or reputation. It had nothing to do with city crime, which has fallen dramatically.
Tamura brought his deranged intent and assault rifle from Las Vegas.
Even so, the horror of one sunlit evening at 345 Park Ave. will haunt victims’ families and their loved ones — and the hearts of all New Yorkers — forever.
