Opposition to the building soon coalesced. One group of bankers planned to build a park on the site, a suggestion that Horowitz said "outranks, for nerve, anything of which I ever heard", and was dropped when Horowitz suggested that the group raise $13.5 million to buy out du Pont's ownership share. Another proposal called for dividing the lot in half by extending New Street, an existing north-south road, north to Cedar Street. This plan also failed, and blueprints were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings in December 1912, which called for a huge H-shaped edifice on the block. On April 12, 1913, du Pont formed the Equitable Office Building Corporation to take title to the building site, and gave Equitable a $20.5 million mortgage loan to run for 60 years. Equitable would lease three floors in exchange for 9% dividends in the building corporation, to be paid in perpetuity. Equitable president William A. Day was appointed as chairman of the board of the building corporation. Thompson–Starrett was hired as the builder and Horowitz became the "owner's representative".