The Chrysler Building, one of New York’s most iconic buildings, has been sold at a loss by its owners, the Emirati investment company Mubadala and the real estate group Tishman Speyer, reports the American press. According to the Wall Street Journal, this 77-story building, considered a masterpiece of art deco architecture, was sold for $ 150 million to the RFR fund of New York real estate investor Aby Rosen and a Unidentified “foreign partner”. The Mubadala fund had disbursed 800 million dollars in 2008 for 90% of the capital.
Tishman Speyer, who had bought the entire building for an estimated sum of between 210 and 250 million dollars in 1997, then retained 10%. This listing comes in tough times for office real estate in New York City in general – and Manhattan in particular. The Hudson Yards neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Bank is soon to be completed with more than 1.6 million square feet of brand new office and housing, further increasing downward pressure for older buildings.
Another element likely to scare potential buyers, the land on which the Chrysler Building is built is owned by a third party, the private Cooper Union University. In 1997, Tishman Speyer negotiated a long-term lease until 2147 with the faculty, which predicted the rent to rise from 7.8 million in 2017 to 32.5 million per year from 2019 to 2027, according to documents viewed by AFP. The value of the land alone was estimated at $ 679 million at the end of 2017.
Inaugurated in 1930, the Chrysler Building was, for only eleven months, the tallest building in the world with its 319 meters, before being dethroned by the Empire State Building (381 on the roof, 443 at the top of the spire ). Even though the building bears his name, and that of its founder Walter Chrysler, the automaker has never set up its offices in this mythical tower located at the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, a popular area for tourists.
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