The buyer did not pay the 19 million dollars in advance on March 24, as was nevertheless expected.
Last week’s auction of an iconic New York building, the ‘Flatiron’, fell through after the buyer failed to pay its $190 million advance, it was reported on Thursday. the auction house. This building, which has been completely empty since 2019, with its particular architecture from the beginning of the 20th century, was in principle awarded on March 22 to an investor, under an order from the New York courts to settle a dispute between its owners.
But this financier, Jacob Garlick, of the Abraham Trust fund, who had been delighted to realize his “dream since the age of 14”, did not pay the 19 million dollars in advance by March 24. , confirmed auctioneer Matthew Mannion of auction company Mannion Auctions.
Matthew Mannion assured not to know the reasons for this renunciation, nor if the “Flatiron” would return, as it was planned during the sale, to a second bidder, Jeff Gural, representing 75% of the owners. Jacob Gural had offered $189.5 million.
“If I have to risk a prediction, I think it will wait for a second auction,” wrote the auctioneer.
Building empty since 2019
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 artery of Manhattan not aligned on the rectilinear plane of the island. .
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, such as the huge Grand Central. Jacob Gural had estimated the renovation of the “Iron” at “100 million dollars”, empty since the departure in 2019 of the last tenant, the publisher MacMillan Publishers.
The five owners were never able to agree on its renovation, nor on its use. Four real estate companies – GFP Real Estate, Newmark, ABS Partners Real Estate and the Sorgente group – control it at 75%. The fifth partner, Nathan Silverstein, holds the remaining 25%. In 2021, the four companies sued Silverstein, accusing him of abandoning the “Flatiron”. Silverstein fought back in a New York court claiming they wanted to lease the building below market. The municipal justice had summoned the five owners to sell at auction.
