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By Next Summer, the $500 Million Renovation of One Times Square Will Feature Wrap Around Viewing Deck and New Museum

The 25-story building at One Times Square is famous as the scene of the annual ball drop on New Year’s Eve. But the current owner Jamestown began a $500 million renovation in 2022 that will be completed in 2025 that will open up much of the interior to the public.

| 28 Dec 2024 | 11:01
    Sherri White, an executive at the developer Jamestown which owns One Times Square, led a press tour to the top of the inconic building in advance of the New Year’s Eve ball drop. The building is in the final phase of a massive $500 million renovation. She said by next summer the renovations will feature a wrap around observation deck and a Times Square Museum.
    Sherri White, an executive at the developer Jamestown which owns One Times Square, led a press tour to the top of the inconic building in advance of the New Year’s Eve ball drop. The building is in the final phase of a massive $500 million renovation. She said by next summer the renovations will feature a wrap around observation deck and a Times Square Museum. ( Photo: Keith J. Kelly)
    Jamestown LLP, the developer that now owns One Times Square where the ball drops each New Year’s Eve, is adding an observation deck as part of its sweeping $500 million overhaul of the iconic building that is being remade into a major tourist attraction.
    Jamestown LLP, the developer that now owns One Times Square where the ball drops each New Year’s Eve, is adding an observation deck as part of its sweeping $500 million overhaul of the iconic building that is being remade into a major tourist attraction. ( Photo: Jamestown)
    When the <i>New York Times</i> first moved from downtown into its new HQ building 1904, the intersection of Seventh Ave and Broadway changed its name from Longacre Square to Times Sq. The <i>Times</i>, which began dropping the New Year’s Eve ball in 1908 moved out of the building long ago and the building changed hands many times, but the ball drop from the building continued and grew more elaborate over the years.
    When the New York Times first moved from downtown into its new HQ building 1904, the intersection of Seventh Ave and Broadway changed its name from Longacre Square to Times Sq. The Times, which began dropping the New Year’s Eve ball in 1908 moved out of the building long ago and the building changed hands many times, but the ball drop from the building continued and grew more elaborate over the years. ( Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
    One Times Square has changed hands many times over the years but the digital signage has become among the priciest billboards in the city.
    One Times Square has changed hands many times over the years but the digital signage has become among the priciest billboards in the city. ( Photo:Bruce Emmerling/Wikimedia Commons)
    Jamestown, the developer that owns One Times Square took over a building that was mostly empty office space and is remaking it into a major tourist attractin with a first-ever public observation deck and museum dedicated to the history of Times Square.
    Jamestown, the developer that owns One Times Square took over a building that was mostly empty office space and is remaking it into a major tourist attractin with a first-ever public observation deck and museum dedicated to the history of Times Square. ( Photo: onetimessquare.com)

The developer that owns the One Times Square building where the New Year’s Eve ball famously drops each year said that by next summer the building will have a spectacular viewing deck open to the general public and a museum taking up the six ground floors.

While millions watch the ball drop every New Year’s Eve, the viewing platform will be the first time the public will be allowed to view things from inside the historic 25-story building that looks down on Times Square.

“We started building the observation deck last year, and it will be open to the public next August,” said Sherri White, an executive with the developer Jamestown LLC and as she led a press on a tour to the top of One Times Square where the New Year’s Eve ball was getting a final spruce up on Dec. 27.

Jamestown had to reclad the facade as part of its four-year rebuilding project.

Because the building is still undergoing construction, the press had to don hard hats, reflective construction vests and sign a waiver in order to be hoisted up the construction elevator to the top to view the New Year’s Eve ball. The last four flights were accessible by stairs only.

Once atop the building, Jeff Straus, president of Countdown Entertainment and co-organizer of New Year’s Eve said there were 2,688 crystals in the ball that is 12 feet in diameter and weighs 11,875 pounds.

In a bit of commercial touch, Joy Mangano, an inventor and founder of Clean Boss which develops non-toxic botanical clearning products, was the official cleaner of the crystals. “This year will be the brightest crystals ever,” said Straus as he introduced Mangano.

Once the renovations are completed, the observation deck will wrap around the building and will be accessible by two glass elevators.

The redevelopment will open much of the building’s interior to the public for the first time in decades, in addition to the museum and observation deck, it will include 12 floors of technology-enabled brand activations. The first six floors of the building will house the museum. “It will tell the history of Times Square and the ball drop,” said White.