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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Corner

In September 2021, Macy's accused the billboard's owner Kaufman Realty of negotiating to lease the space to an online retailer before Macy's most recent lease expired that August. Macy's claimed that the lessee was almost certainly Amazon and filed for an injunction preventing Kaufman from leasing the space to a competitor. Macy's claimed that a 1963 agreement prohibited such a lease "forever" and that an Amazon billboard would be highly visible during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

So was the injunction successful?
You nerd-snipped me into digging through court records.

The case was 655669/2021 in the New York County Supreme Court (the Supreme Court is the name for the first-tier courts in NY state).

Docket: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketI...

The parties were in settlement talks and postponed the hearing on an injunction and then settled and dismissed.

The London version of this is Spiegelhalters, in the middle of the ornate facade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickhams_(department_store)
Amsterdam's Victoria Hotel near Central Station also has a holdout embedded in its edifice.

https://old.reddit.com/r/SpiteHouse/comments/of5cqh/in_the_c...

Wow, I walk there all the time and I’ve never noticed
I didn’t see it for decades, only realized waaay too long into a Dutch movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3765078/ (Publieke Werken). I cannot imagine how I was ever able to not see it immediately..
That wiki photo is hilarious!
It's a nice Saturday afternoon, and I'm literally in Midtown right now, wandering around after walking down 5th Avenue (it's shut down to cars today for "Summer Streets"). Perfect chance to walk over and take a look at this. I love city oddities like this.

EDIT: got a great view of it. Fascinating that this dilapidated structure has just been hiding in plain sight all these years.

They have an odd definition of "middle".
Is it more profitable to lease the space for banners as opposed to lease the apartments to tenants?
Yes, think about the less overhead from dealing with people and building issues. Take a look at the Times Square too.
Probably since you don't have to deal with tenant issues for one.
People underestimate the value of predictability.
Land value tax solves this
Not really. looks like they pay nearly $2mil a year every year right now already. You can look up Block 810 Lot 40 here: https://a836-pts-access.nyc.gov/care/search/commonsearch.asp...
The funniest thing about internet land value tax discourse is all of the people who don’t realize that land is already taxed in cities like this.

As the other commenter discovered, the tax rate is very significant for this property.

But the core proposition doesn’t make sense, either. A land value tax wouldn’t force a property to be used for a less profitable use case. A LVT forces the property to be used for the most profitable use case because the tax would prevent people from using it for less profitable activities because that’s the only way to pay the high LVT.

Land value tax is an evil concept. Having to pay for land you already own is insane. Also, people already pay property tax, why should there be an additional tax.
I used to work one block from there. For years I got off at that station and walked past the building but had no idea it was hiding something like that. Amazing!
Don't you think that at the 1900s photo the city looks better? Look how wide were the sidewalks and how little cars were there.

Also, I initially thought that large store building was not historical, but a modern one because its style doesn't look classical and rather as a parody to the classical buildings. I was surprised that it is more than 100 years old.

Also, small buildings sandwitched between large ones like that look cute.

What do you call a building that can only be seen once in a hundred years?

99% Invisible.

That building looks horrible, do people live there?
Based on the pictures I can’t imagine anyone legally living there.

I don’t know for sure, but I imagine usable windows are required for living spaces.

Every bedroom of a rental is required to have a window in New York.

But in this part of town, the advertising rights alone probably vastly exceed any possible revenue from renting the building for residential use. It’s kind of like the tiny building in Times Square that has the ball on top. I don’t think people even realize there’s a building behind all of the billboards, but it was original New York Times building.

The ground floor is a Sunglass Hut from the looks of things. Then the first floor looks like it might be offices, or a fancy apartment. The other floors could be storage space for the tenants and the landlord.

My first instinct was perhaps they raised the ceiling in the first floor to occupy some of the second. But thinking on it more, high ceilings without windows to go with them usually don't make the space feel that much bigger. You can spend up to a couple feet on crown molding but beyond that you're well into diminishing returns.

Mandamus will tax it
You know your facade sucks when it looks better with a giant billboard covering it.
There are several such buildings in NYC in prime real estate areas that are kept empty in order to prioritize billboard revenue.
Source? My understanding is this is no longer true
I was thinking the same question. It certainly looks unoccupied -I can’t imagine people living in the other side but then again it _could_ be very well maintained and decorated on the inside despite the eyesore looks on the outside. Moreover since the lower floors are commercial it must mean that at least the upper floors are keeping out the elements.
Not on the really rough looking floors. It has been used as a huge billboard for a very long time.
I know. I was expecting something easier on the eye. Maybe a century of being behind billboards has wrecked it. The 1906/1907 photographs look much better.
Neglect and dust. With the billboards up nobody not even the rain has been washing the facade.
Ground floor is a shop, pepper floors are basically empty.
^pepper^upper

Though I have replaced pepper control arms on a vintage Mustang once. Rust does that.

It just needs some minor cleaning and renovation.
No, they just shop there.
Man, can you imagine something like that in the current regulatory environment.

The geniuses on all the various boards would block the Macys building on all sorts of asinine grounds because the carve out is odd and perhaps looks stupid. Or Macys would pay off the city to eminent domain the hold out.

“Hidden by billboards for over 100 years, the tiny holdout building in the middle of Macy’s is back in view‎”

Initial word of headline necessary for comprehension

Fixed (from “by billboards for over 100 years …” or something, previously)
a farm. in manhattan

sigh

There are still farms in Manhattan and other parts of NYC. From the few I know off-hand:

- The Farm at the Javits Center (Hudson Yards) is a working rooftop farm, greenhouse, and has an orchard.

- On Randall’s Island there is a farm with raised beds, greenhouses, rice paddies, and also an orchard.

- Battery Urban Farm (Lower Manhattan) - not sure of this counts but its an operating educational farm that grows produce.

There are others.

Why do you think "sheep meadow" in Central Park is called that?

Do you think Manhattan has always been skyscrapers?

you misinterpreted me
I don’t understand. Do you think the Dutch came to Manhattan in the 1620s and found it fully built out with streets and skyscrapers?
Wow, people are completely misinterpreting my comment.

I'm lamenting the loss of farms in manhattan.

"The Bronx" was "The Bronks", a farm owned by a Dutch family and a popular picnic destination before it was subdivided and built over.
Mamdani should expropriate the building and do something charitable with it.