New York's iconic 'Flatiron' finds buyer for $161 million

Less than two months after a previous bid failed, an iconic New York building, the 'Flatiron', was auctioned on Tuesday May 23 for $161 million to a group of buyers led by the property developer Jeff Gural, announced the company which organized the sale. The sale took place outdoors, in lower Manhattan, in front of a hundred people, and seven buyers were registered, Mannion Auctions told AFP.

Jeff Gural, 80, is no stranger to the "Flatiron", since he represents 75% of the owners of the iron-shaped building. A 22-storey, 87-meter high office building, at the crossroads of 22nd Street, Fifth Avenue and Broadway, the “Flatiron” was built in 2 years and completed in 1902, in the Beaux-Arts style. Its pointed shape, recognizable among all and which gave it its name, is explained by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, the only artery in Manhattan not aligned with the rectilinear plane of the island.

On March 23, the building was sold for the first time for 190 million dollars, under an order from the city, to settle a dispute between its owners. But the buyer, financier Jacob Garlick, founder of the Abraham Trust investment fund, had not paid the 19 million dollars in advance by March 24. The building could already have gone to Jeff Gural, boss of GFP Real Estate, who had offered 189.5 million dollars, but the latter preferred to wait for new auctions to be organized.

The “Iron” had been empty since 2019 when its last tenant, publisher MacMillan Publishers, left. The five owners could not 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 Nathan Silverstein, accusing him of leaving the "Flatiron" empty. The municipal justice had ordered the owners to sell the building at auction.