This emblematic building was purchased by Jacob Garlick, founder of the Abraham Trust investment fund. He pledged to “preserve his integrity forever”.
It is an essential and emblematic skyscraper of New York: the “Flatiron” with its very particular architecture from the beginning of the 20th century was sold at auction on Wednesday for 190 million dollars, under an order from the city’s justice to settle a dispute between its owners.
It was the financier Jacob Garlick, founder of the investment fund Abraham Trust, who took this “Iron”, empty since 2019, confirmed this Thursday the commissioner Matthew Mannion of the auction company Mannion Auctions. The buyer will have to pay by Friday evening “10% of this amount – 19 million dollars – otherwise the property will go to the second bidder, Jeff Gural, who represented 75% of the owners and offered 189.5 million dollars,” according to Matthew Mannion.
The “Flatiron Building” is a 22-story, 87-meter high office building located in Midtown Manhattan, at the crossroads of 22nd Street, Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Its pointed shape, in “Iron”, recognizable among all and which gave it its name, is explained by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, the only avenue in Manhattan which is not aligned on the rectilinear plane. from the island.
Unoccupied since 2019
Built in two years and completed in 1902, the “Flatiron” was built by an architect from the Chicago School, Daniel Burnham, in the Beaux-Arts style, like many New York buildings, for example the huge train station Grand Center. The loser, Jeff Gural, said he was “a little shocked” on local television NY1 that “someone had bid so much for this piece of the city’s heritage”. “It’s a nice building, but it needs $100 million in renovations,” he warned.
“It’s been a dream since I was 14”, rejoiced, on the same channel, the lucky winner, Jacob Garlick, pledging to “preserve his integrity forever”. The “Iron” had been empty since 2019 when its last tenant, publisher MacMillan Publishers, left. The five owners could not agree on its renovation, nor on its use. Four real estate companies – GFP Real Estate, Newmark, ABS Real Estate Partners and the Sorgente group – controlled it 75%. The fifth partner, Nathan Silverstein, controlled the remaining 25%.
In 2021, the four companies sued Silverstein, accusing him of leaving the “Flatiron” empty. Silverstein fought back in a New York court alleging that they wanted to lease the skyscraper below market, according to CNBC television. The municipal justice ordered the five owners to sell at auction.
