New York's
iconic Flatiron Building
, located in midtown Manhattan, was sold at auction, ending a dispute between its owner that had kept it empty for four years.
The buyer is Jacob Garlick, founding partner of Abraham Trust, a fund specializing in different investment operations, who, as soon as the sale was completed, told NY1 television: "It has been a
dream that I have had throughout my life
since I was 14 years old. Our mission will be to always respect its integrity", in reference to its historical and architectural uniqueness.
The auction had only two protagonists: Garlick and another real estate capitalist,
Jeffrey Gural
, of GFP Real Estate;
According to the same chain, the bid lasted 45 minutes, in which the two tycoons were raising the price of the adversary by half a million.
The Flatiron Building, Daniel Burnham's 1902 triangular tower, nicknamed for its clothes-iron appearance, near Broadway.
Numerous people, both from the real estate sector and architecture lovers, came to observe this unique auction that had been
ordered by a judge
to end an endless dispute between its co-owners, who were four real estate companies (GFP among them) and a businessman .
In any case,
the conditions of the auction are leonine
: if Garlick does not put a 10% price on the table on Friday, that is, 19 million, the building goes to the second bidder, and if he does not have that amount either, it is auctioned again .
The Flatiron, built in 1902 on a triangular base (at the junction of Broadway and Fifth Avenue) and which looks slender facing Madison Square Park,
has been empty since
its last tenant, McMillan Publishers, left in 2019.
, which occupied its 21 heights.
The Flatiron Building in Manhattan was built in 1902 and is one of the greatest jewels of old architecture from the early 20th century.
Designed by
Daniel Burnham and Frederick Dinkelberg
, it became one of the tallest buildings in the city upon its completion, and was also for several years one of only two "skyscrapers" situated north of 14th Street;
the other was the nearby Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, completed in 1909.
It is not clear what destination the new owner will give the skyscraper
, whether it will be an office building as was its initial function, a luxury hotel or a luxury apartment building.
The loser Gural, in an imitation of the famous fable of the fox and the grapes, said after the auction: "I'm kind of hallucinated, really. I never thought someone would bid so high for the building. It's a beautiful property, but it
needs
100 millions to get it ready, now it's basically empty.
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