The auction last week of an emblematic building in New York (United States), the “Flatiron”, failed after the buyer did not pay his advance on the 190 million dollars he had to pay, the auction firm said on Thursday. This building, completely empty since 2019, at thearchitecture so particular of the beginning of the 20th century, had in principle been awarded on March 22 to an investor, under court order New Yorker 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. The latter 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. He had offered $189.5 million. “If I have to risk a prediction, I think he will wait a second auction “Wrote the auctioneer to AFP.
Disagreement between owners
The “Flatiron Building” is a building of 22 floors and 87 meters high offices, located in the Midtown district of Manhattan, at the crossroads of 22nd street, 5th 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 with 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.
Jeff Gural had estimated at “100 million dollars” the renovation of the “Iron”, 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 fired back at a tribunal of New York claiming that they wanted to rent the building below market. The municipal justice had summoned the five owners to sell at auction.
