Real estate heavyweights Steve Roth and Jared Kushner are mulling a plan to reposition the 1957-era aluminum-clad 666 Fifth Ave. office tower into a 1,400-foot vertical mall, hotel and residential tower.
The Post has also learned that Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid has already prepared a scheme that would restack the current 41-story building into a slender, super-tall hotel and residential tower above a vertical retail podium.
Because of its location, a significant part of the tower would have unobstructed views of Central Park.
While a partner in the office portion — Roth’s company, Vornado Realty Corp. — controls the building’s Fifth Avenue retail condominium, which they purchased from Kushner Companies, Carlyle and Crown Acquisitions in 2012 for $710 million.
Known as a visionary, Roth is now developing the 950 foot-tall 220 Central Park South, which has sold over $1.6 billion, including a $200 million-plus penthouse.
“It is an extraordinary product and it’s a super location,” Roth enthused on the quarterly conference call in August.
The company previously developed 731 Lexington Ave. and the luxury residential condominium at One Beacon Court on the full-block former Alexander’s site and has redevelopment plans for the Hotel Pennsylvania and other areas around Penn Station.
The Kushner Cos. owns over 100 buildings in New York and is a major builder in New Jersey. It turned the top of the Puck Building into luxury penthouses and is redeveloping portions of Dumbo, Gowanus and Williamsburg.
Should the developers move ahead with the reimagined 666 Fifth plan, Vornado would be able to combine its retail and office assets into a spectacular new tower. The Zara store is a separately owned condominium and would be unaffected, sources said, but some office tenants, such as Colliers International, would need to relocate.
Neither Kushner nor Vornado returned requests for comment.
Such a project on the E. 52rd to 53rd Street block front would also create a new 50-yard line for high-end retail along the most expensive corridor in the world. It would become one of the first new major towers on Fifth Avenue since Kushner’s father-in-law developed Trump Tower in 1983 and Dr. Axl Stawski developed 505 Fifth in 2006.
“Given its proximity to Bergdorf and Saks and the Fifth Ave address, it’s a no-brainer,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Douglas Elliman Retail. “New York is a retail rich city and we’ve now proven that vertical retail works in Manhattan.”
