The four-story landmark at 23 Wall Street, once the headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co. and still marked by unrepaired shrapnel scars from a 1920 bombing, is headed back before city regulators with a plan that could finally end its long stretch of vacancy. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is set to review a proposal for a ground-floor retail conversion of the 160,000-square-foot building, located between William and Broad streets in the Financial District, that would carve the historic banking hall into space for two commercial tenants.
According to New York YIMBY, the plan from developer JTRE Holdings, designed by BP Architects, calls for new storefront entrances, display windows, tenant signage and an ADA lift at the first floor, with the work concentrated at the building's base while the Tennessee marble facade remains intact throughout. The presentation to Community Board 1's Landmarks Preservation Committee on September 10 offered a glimpse of the strategy behind the filing: historic preservation consultant Sarah Sher told the committee that the proposed Wall Street entrance modification actually restores a door opening used through the 1920s, according to The Broadsheet.
What the Renovation Would Actually Touch
On the Wall Street side, the changes include new masonry openings within a recessed bay at the eastern end of the facade, fire-rated antique bronze doors — a 3-foot single door and a 5-foot-10-inch double door, both fitted with insulated glass — and non-illuminated, pin-mounted tenant signage spelled out in 8-inch antique bronze letters, per the filing details reported by New York YIMBY. On Broad Street, crews would remove sections of infill wall to reopen original window bays, which would receive fixed low-e insulated glazing set in thermally broken aluminum frames behind the building's historic window grilles. Those grilles would be removed, salvaged, cleaned, refinished and reinstalled to match their historic finish, while existing bi-fold doors would be modified so all panels operate.
The building, designed by Trowbridge & Livingston and completed in 1914, was known in its day as “The Corner” even though it never bore the firm's name on its exterior. J.P. Morgan & Co. used the property as its headquarters until 1988, connecting it internally to the neighboring 15 Broad Street tower in 1957, according to Wikipedia. Built with ashlar masonry and three-by-three-foot blocks of pink Tennessee marble, the structure has four above-ground stories.
A Landmark Still Scarred by 1920
The building's facade still carries unrepaired shrapnel scars from the September 16, 1920 Wall Street bombing, when a bomb containing 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of iron weights detonated at 12:01 p.m., killing 38 people and seriously injuring 143 in what remains an unsolved terror attack, per Untapped New York. J.P. Morgan & Co. refused to repair the damage. Beyond its designation as an individual New York City Landmark on December 21, 1965, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 19, 1972, and became a contributing building to the Wall Street Historic District, giving it overlapping layers of municipal and federal preservation oversight.
Nearly Two Decades of Vacancy and Legal Battles
23 Wall Street, alternately addressed as 3 Broad Street, has been largely vacant since the late 2000s, and its recent history has been defined as much by courtrooms as by architecture. Developer Jack Terzi signed a contract in August 2016 to buy the property for $140 million from China Sonangol, which accepted a down payment but did not close, sparking years of litigation, as detailed by The Real Deal. That fight ultimately ended with Terzi securing control of the property through a 99-year lease in January 2020, with Terzi serving as a principal of JTRE Holdings.
The vacancy nearly claimed a major retail tenant along the way. Global fashion retailer Uniqlo spent more than ten years hunting for a Financial District location, and Terzi marketed 23 Wall Street to the retailer before commercial real-estate complications stalled the deal. Uniqlo later planned to open at Westfield World Trade Center on September 25, 2026, as Hoodline reported in our earlier coverage.
Whether the Landmarks Preservation Commission approves the requested masonry cuts and window modifications remains to be seen, and it is not yet known whether JTRE Holdings has secured signed commitments for either of the two proposed retail spaces. For now, the fate of one of Wall Street's most storied — and most scarred — addresses rests with the commission's review.
