York City skyscrapers in 2007, the New York Observer listed the Solow Building as one of the city's most expensive buildings. The top floors of the building were being marketed at per year, while the average annual rent for "premium" Midtown office space was per year. Nearby buildings such as 712 Fifth Avenue, the Carnegie Hall Tower, the General Motors Building, and 888 Seventh Avenue also had high asking rates. Bank of America had taken space on the Solow Building's second floor and mezzanine, which had originally been designed as Morgan Guaranty's trading floor. Though the trading floor was able to fit 300 people, Solow had refused to make alterations to allow the bank to add 200 traders. After Bank of America moved to the Bank of America Tower in 2008, about half the building was empty for two years. By 2010, the top three floors were among the building's vacant spaces. This was a much higher vacancy rate than the citywide average, despite the building's luxury reputation and the ongoing Great Recession. The vacancies were in part because Solow asked much higher rates per square foot compared to nearby buildings, and he was obstinate in not charging lower rents. According to The New York Times, he asked one potential tenant , but he became "furious" when the tenant leased space at the General Motors Building at . In another case, financial services firm Natixis already occupied space on upper floors and wanted to rent the trading floor, but the firm reneged on its offer because Solow would not allow Natixis to expand the trading floor. Though Solow was able to attract additional tenants over the next year, the building continued to face problems, including in 2011, when all but one of the elevators between the lobby and 27th floor simultaneously failed. The same year, two tenants signed large leases, and Solow refinanced the building with a $625 million commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) loan from Deutsche Bank. Within two years, rental rates at the Solow Building were among the highest in Manhattan. By 2016, the building was 64 percent occupied by 26 companies. The Solow Building, along with 520 Madison Avenue and 65 East 55th Street, were among the Midtown buildings charging high rents. This was part of a trend in which buildings typically occupied by hedge funds and investment firms charged higher rents. The same year, Solow refinanced the