Macklowe Properties has a permit in hand for 809 Madison Avenue, and this time it's not a filing to review — it's a foundation contractor with a job number.
The New York City Department of Buildings issued the permit on September 22 for foundation work "associated with horizontal and vertical enlargement" at the Upper East Side site, according to DOB's public permit record. The filing lists an estimated cost of $18,761,970 across the job, with CM and Associates Construction and Zapas Construction Corp named as contractors. Work covers foundation, general construction, plumbing and structural scope — the trades that go in before anything visible happens on the street.
“If you do foundation, underpinning, or structural steel on Manhattan avenue-facing sites, 809 Madison is now a live job to track, not a pipeline rumor.”
This is the same address where Macklowe filed plans earlier this month to expand the building both up and out — a filing this desk covered when it hit the record. What changed: that filing has now cleared into an active work permit, with two named contractors and a nearly $19 million cost estimate attached specifically to foundation and structural work. A DevHUB consultation dated July 18, 2025 is referenced in the permit paperwork, meaning the design side of this has been in front of DOB for over a year before the dirt work got a green light.
For a foundation and structural subcontractor working the Upper East Side, this is the signal that matters more than the original filing: permit issued, GC-side contractors named, cost estimate attached to the actual work package. If you do foundation, underpinning, or structural steel on Manhattan avenue-facing sites, 809 Madison is now a live job to track, not a pipeline rumor. Horizontal-and-vertical enlargement work — expanding a building's footprint and adding floors at once — tends to run long on structural inspections and DOB sign-offs, so subs bidding downstream trades (mechanical, curtain wall, finishes) should expect the foundation phase to set the real schedule.
Track the job through DOB's own permit and job records under the 809 Madison Avenue address. That's the primary source for every subsequent amendment, inspection, and any additional work permits filed as the project proceeds through foundation into superstructure.