The proposal, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox,[7][10] was to include a rehearsal studio, a restaurant and cabaret, and additional retail space, as well as below-ground connections to the Rockefeller Center concourse and surrounding subway lines.

[10][13] In 1994, Rockefeller Group received permission from the city to turn the site into a parking lot until an anchor tenant was found for the development.

[8] In November 1998, Morgan Stanley and Rockefeller Group finalized negotiations and signed a deal to begin working on a new development at the site, with Kohn Pedersen Fox once again in charge of the design.

Morgan Stanley intended to use the building to supplement its headquarters at 1585 Broadway, only a block away from the site, desiring to keep its workforce concentrated in one area as part of a "Midtown urban campus".

The building was topped out in November of 2000, less than eight months after construction began, and was on track to be finished within the 25-month time frame required by Tishman's contract.

[10] Morgan Stanley's sentiment shifted after the September 11 attacks, which exposed the vulnerability of concentrating workers in one area dependent on the same electrical grid and services.

[22] The Rockefeller Group maintained its ownership stake after the deal, and Morgan Stanley went on to sublease office space elsewhere in the city before purchasing the former Texaco Headquarters in White Plains in an effort to disperse its operations.

[20] Lehman nevertheless worked with the construction companies previously contracted by Morgan Stanley to complete an additional $80 million in interior design adjustments — which included a redesign of the top two floors to add executive offices — before occupying the building in 2002.

[25] The company began taking on major losses in 2008 due to its heavy positions in subprime mortgages before declaring bankruptcy on September 15 of that year.

[26][27] The following day, Barclays announced it would purchase most of Lehman's North American operations, including 745 Seventh Avenue, for $1.75 billion.