Fifteen stories tall and occupying an entire city block, it has 2.9 million square feet (270,000 m2) of floor space, more than the Empire State Building.

The Port of New York Authority began acquiring the land on the building's site in 1930, against the protests of local residents.

Occupancy fell to 50 percent in the 1970s due to the decline of industrial activity in Manhattan, and the Port Authority itself moved to the World Trade Center in 1973.

[11] Because of the warehouse mission of the building, it was able to avoid some of the setback rules that greatly reduced the buildable space available for the skyscrapers that mark the Manhattan skyline.

[21] On the 15th floor, which contained the Port Authority's offices, engineer Aymar Embury II designed a 325-seat auditorium decorated in green and blue.

[22] The building's design retains vestiges of its original industrial purpose, including truck-sized freight elevators and floors built to support heavy loads.

[26] By the early twentieth century, the West Side of Manhattan was plagued with heavy traffic because of the tangle of street-level passenger and freight trains on the West Side Line, cargo unloading from the busy Hudson River piers, and the lack of suitable warehouse facilities.

[7]: 140–151  The situation led the Port of New York Authority to commission the construction of a large inland terminal at 111 Eighth Avenue.

[29][30] The terminal was planned to cost $15 million and would include office space,[30][31] as well as large driveways and about 7 acres (28,000 m2; 300,000 sq ft) for sorting freight.

[35][36] The Port Authority acquired additional land on the building's site throughout the rest of the year, despite the protests of local residents.

[37] By October 1930, the Port Authority had bought 85 percent of the site and was preparing to acquire the remaining buildings through condemnation.

[34] Twelve railroads signed an agreement with the Port Authority to use the new terminal at the beginning of January 1931,[39][40] and contractors immediately began razing the site.

[42] A groundbreaking ceremony for the freight terminal, attended by New York State governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, took place on April 30, 1931.

[65] The Port Authority hired Caldwell, Garvan & Bettini in October 1933 to construct a lobby, stair, and foyer for Commerce Hall on the building's second floor.

[69] The Board of Estimate approved an agreement in 1940, in which the Port Authority would make annual $60,000 payments in lieu of taxes on the building.

[75] The Port Authority's 1949 report noted a significant decrease in freight handling at the building due to an overall shift in Manhattan from rail to trucks for transporting goods.

[80][81] It was the site of an accident on July 13, 1955, when a Bell 47 helicopter operated by the Port Authority crashed shortly after take-off and fell, in flames, onto the fifteenth floor, where it became stuck.

[84] The shipping and manufacturing industries in Chelsea declined significantly during the 1960s, as firms moved from the neighborhood to elsewhere in the New York metropolitan area.

Cohn and Alice Lawrence were unable to agree on what to do with 111 Eighth Avenue and three other buildings, leading to a protracted legal struggle.

The building's largest tenants at the time included Citibank, the New York State Insurance Fund, and Prudential Securities.

[91] Blackacre Capital Group and Taconic Investment Partners agreed to acquire the four buildings in November 1997 for $387 million;[93] the sale was finalized in January 1998.

[94][95] Taconic marketed 111 Eighth Avenue as a carrier hotel for the new booming internet business, as the building had high ceilings, large floor plates, multiple fiber-optic connections, and five times the electrical capacity that typical tenants required.

[98] 111 Eighth Avenue's new tenants also contributed to the gentrification of the surrounding neighborhood; as Crain's New York wrote in 1999: "The building's advertising and Internet professionals provide a natural market for lunch and nighttime eateries.

[96] A 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m2) cancer treatment center, designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and operated by St. Vincent's Hospital,[15][101] opened in the building the same year.

[105] The Google workspace was noted for its campus-like and playful atmosphere, with perks including free food and a game room; The New York Times described it as "a vision of a workplace utopia as conceived by rich, young, single engineers in Silicon Valley, transplanted to Manhattan".

[106][4] The deal was credited with helping revive the New York City commercial real estate market, which had slumped during the Great Recession.

[113] Despite the massive size of the acquisition, Google has still found itself having to rent space elsewhere because it has been unable to break the leases with some of its tenants, including Nike, Deutsch Inc., and Bank of New York.