New York’s Empire State Building Heading For An IPO

New York City’s 102-storey and 80 year-old landmark skyscraper, which stood as the world’s tallest building for more than four decades, is about to be taken public.

According to a DealBook report by the New York Times, the Malkin family that owns the Empire State Building is planning to list it on the stock market together with other properties.

New York City’s 102-storey and 80 year-old landmark skyscraper, which stood as the world’s tallest building for more than four decades, is about to be taken public.

According to a DealBook report by the New York Times, the Malkin family that owns the Empire State Building is planning to list it on the stock market together with other properties.

Based on a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it is likely that the imposing landmark in the Big Apple would be added into a real estate investment trust, or REIT, a common form of public ownership for real estate assets.

One Grand Central Place Building and another Manhattan property are said to be part of the REIT.

[quote]

Malkin Holdings LLC, the supervisor of the Company, has embarked on a course of action that could result in the Company becoming part of a newly formed public REIT. The Company for legal reasons is not in a position to disclose more information until documents are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which the Company anticipates could occur in approximately three months [/quote]

The New York Times called the “unusual” SEC filing “devoid of special financial information” and reported, citing unnamed sources, that Goldman Sachs is likely to be the lead underwriter.

If the reports are true, the IPO would stand as a stark contrast to the many technology-based companies that have filed for public offerings in recent months. This year alone, popular social networking and marketing companies like Groupon and LinkedIn have already gone public. Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, plans to go public in 2012.

Related: Groupon shares plunge below IPO price 3 weeks after going public

Related: LinkedIn’s early investors prepare to cash in

Related: Facebook to delay IPO till late 2012?

Two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that “investors have poured roughly $6 billion into publicly traded funds of real-estate investment trusts, or REITs, which mostly buy commercial properties like apartment buildings, office parks and shopping malls,” adding that the value of REITs in 2011 “is up 18 percent from all of 2010 and 400 percent from 2009, and a pace unseen since before the financial crisis.”

According to Commercial Mortgage Alert, the building is valued at $1.65 billion, with an annual net income of $63 million.

Completed in 1931, the 269,000 square-foot Empire State Building is 102 stories high and fitted with 70 elevators. It was the world’s tallest building until World Trade Centre was completed in 1973. Two years ago, the building underwent a $500 million upgrade to meet current environmental standards.

The building has been in recent years dwarfed by mega-skyscrapers found in Asia and the Middle East. The tallest building today – the 828-metres, 160-stories majestic Burj Khalifa – can be found in Dubai. 

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