What prompted the auction of New York’s iconic “Flatiron” skyscraper?

It is the financier Jacob Garlick, founder of the investment fund Abraham Trust, who acquired the property for the sum of 190 million dollars, this Wednesday, March 22. Matthew Mannion, commissioner of auction house Mannion Auctions, confirmed the sale to AFP. But why was an entire building put up for auction?

The “Iron” had been empty since 2019 when its last tenant, publisher MacMillan Publishers, left. The five owners could not then 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 having left the “Flatiron” empty. According to CNBC, Silverstein defended himself in a New York court claiming that the other owners wanted to rent the skyscraper at a below-market price. The municipal justice ordered the five owners to sell at auction.

“Flatiron”: what is this emblematic building of the Big Apple?

The “Flatiron Building” is a 22-story, 87-meter high office building located in Midtown Manhattan. Its very recognizable “iron” tip shape is what gave it its name. It is mainly explained by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, the only avenue that is not aligned with the rectilinear plane of the island of Manhattan.

Completed in 1902, the “Flatiron” was built in just two years by Daniel Burnham, an architect from the Chicago school. Designed in the “Beaux-Arts” style, the building is characteristic of New York architecture.

On a local TV channel, the loser, Mr. Gural, said he was shocked 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. The new owner is delighted: “It’s been a dream since I was 14,” he said, while pledging to “preserve its integrity forever.”