The New York City Board of Estimate approved a zoning regulation encouraging the construction of theaters in new office buildings near Times Square.

Subsequently, National General Pictures announced plans in January 1970 for a skyscraper with movie theaters, and Arlen Realty was hired as the building's developer.

1500 Broadway is on the eastern side of Times Square, between 43rd and 44th Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

[1] 1500 Broadway shares the block with the Lambs Club Building and the Town Hall performing-arts center to the east.

[10] The two-story structure, a shoe shop,[11] itself replaced the Barrett House hotel, where playwright Eugene O'Neill was born.

[21] The lowest four stories of the facade were renovated in the late 1980s, when Clark Tribble Harris & Li designed a new entrance on 43rd Street with a portico made of stainless steel and black granite.

[24] The facade also features a pair of curving news tickers, as well as a 585-square-foot (54.3 m2) screen overlooking Broadway and Seventh Avenue.

When the lobby was renovated in the late 1980s, it was converted into a rotunda with curved walls, two ornamental columns, and a ceiling measuring 25 feet (7.6 m) high.

[25] During the studios' construction, the lowest five stories were gutted, and concrete columns at the center of the building were replaced with steel trusses along the perimeter.

[24][30] Covering 2,400 square feet (220 m2), the ground-level studio was originally designed to resemble a New York City Subway station.

[31] After World War II, development of theaters around Times Square stalled, and the area began to evolve into a business district.

[32] By the 1960s, city officials were encouraging the westward expansion of office towers in Manhattan, and there were few efforts to preserve existing theaters.

[33][34] This changed in 1967, when the New York City Board of Estimate approved a zoning regulation encouraging the construction of theaters in new office buildings near Times Square.

[35] The legislation allowed developers to increase the maximum amount of office space in their buildings if they erected a theater at their base.

[21][36] National General Pictures announced in January 1970 that it had signed a lease for a 32-story skyscraper with two movie theaters, which was to be built on the site of the Claridge Hotel.

[13] Other early tenants included the American Federation of Musicians (which leased three floors)[43] the Actors' Equity Association,[44] and the Junior League.

[53] The new owners, known as the 1500 Realty Company, had wanted to buy the building because it had windows on all sides, the offices did not require asbestos abatement, and the neighborhood was improving.

However, the structure had 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of vacant space; brokers said potential tenants were dissuaded by the lack of security, poor maintenance, and rundown lobby.

[62] After the building was sold, Intertech announced plans to renovate 1500 Broadway's mechanical systems and public spaces for $6 million.

[63] Intertech's executive vice president said, "One of the reasons we bought 1500 Broadway in 1995 was its potential for signage", as the building had never contained any advertisements.

[65][66] To attract potential tenants, Bendit's firm Taconic Investment Partners replaced the building's wiring.

[78] By the early 2010s, the building's tenants included Chinese Communist Party–owned newspaper China Daily,[79] in addition to 13 technology companies.

[87] Though Nasdaq chose not to renew its lease at the end of the month, the company continued to operate its signage on the building.

[16] Paul Goldberger criticized the building as having brought "nothing more than Third Avenue banality to a part of town that, whatever its social problems, has always been visually spectacular.

[7] Just before the building's late-1990s renovation, a writer for Crain's New York described 1500 Broadway as "a plain black box with dowdy retail space".