Paramount Plaza, also 1633 Broadway and formerly the Uris Building, is a 48-story skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the building was developed by the Uris brothers and was renamed for its owner, the Paramount Group, by 1980.

J. C. Penney and Sears initially took up much of the building's space, though the subsequent tenants came from a wider variety of fields, including law and finance.

Paramount Plaza is on 1633 Broadway, near Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

[13] Under normal zoning regulations, the maximum floor area ratio (FAR) for any building on the tower's site was 15, but the developers received two bonuses of 20 percent each, bringing the FAR to 21.6.

[14] The Gershwin and Circle in the Square Theatres were built under a 1968 regulation that allowed office buildings to include a legitimate theater in exchange for additional floor area.

[19][20] 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.

[23] The southern sunken plaza has an entrance to the 50th Street station of the New York City Subway,[14][22] served by the 1 train.

[29] The cube, designed by MdeAS Architects, serves as an entrance to a double-level retail space in the basement, which spans 39,588 sq ft (3,677.8 m2).

[31] Some offices were fitted with additional decorations; for example, accounting firm Touche, Ross, Bailey Smart added curving staircases between two of its five floors.

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

[51] The Uris Buildings Corporation bought an option in April 1967 to acquire the Capitol Theatre and the land around it from the theater's owner, Loews Cineplex Entertainment.

[74][75] To fund the building's construction, Uris borrowed $62 million from a consortium of banks led by Irving Trust.

[79] Among the early tenants with several floors of space were accounting firm Touche, Ross, Bailey Smart;[80][81] automotive appliance manufacturer Bendix International;[82] and the New York Telephone Company.

[83] Even so, the inclusion of theaters inside the Uris Building raised construction costs, even as office tenants were scarce.

[86] Sears, Roebuck and Company sought to lease much of the building's remaining office space, but the deal initially failed in mid-1971.

[92] City officials praised the lease, which was expanded in November 1973 to 15 stories, as part of a revitalization of the Times Square neighborhood.

[93] Meanwhile, after Percy Uris had died in 1971, his brother Harold began negotiating to sell off all his company's assets, including 1633 Broadway.

[95] The Uris Buildings Corporation failed to pay the construction loan, which was due at the end of December 1973 and was extended multiple times.

[76][77] Uris decided not to extend the loan because it would not provide additional funding to cover operating and carrying costs.

[77][78] At that time, 12.5 percent of office space in Manhattan was vacant,[b] higher than the 5-percent rate that the real-estate community generally accepted.

[77][96] Irving Trust and the other lenders launched foreclosure proceedings in March 1974, the first time in a decade that a new office building in New York City had been foreclosed upon.

[100] However, Newsday reported in December 1975 that the building had a 10 percent vacancy rate, even though its owners had spent millions of dollars on renovations.

[103] The buyer, Metropolitan Realty Investments, paid $80 million;[104] it represented the Otto family of Germany, which operated in the United States under the Paramount Group name.

[116] In 1987, J. C. Penney indicated that it intended to move all of its New York City employees to Dallas, freeing up a large amount of office space at Paramount Plaza;[117] the relocation was completed by 1994.

[119] Deloitte, one of the Big Four accounting firms, moved its global headquarters there after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

[133] In 2010, financial services company Allianz announced it would move its North American headquarters to 1633 Broadway,[20][134] receiving the right to place its name atop the building's roof.

[145] The same year, toy store FAO Schwarz was negotiating to lease some retail space in 1633 Broadway, but the deal failed.

[161] The next April, Paramount indicated it would enter a joint venture with an unnamed investor to sell a 10 percent stake in 1633 Broadway.

[165] This provided extra cash for the firm[166] amid a decline in office leasing due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.