Last week’s auction of an iconic New York building, the ‘Flatiron’, failed after the buyer failed to pay an advance of the US$190 million it was owed, it said. Thursday the auction house.
This building, which has been completely empty since 2019, with its particular architecture from the beginning of the 20th centurye century, had in principle been awarded on March 22 to an investor, under a New York court order 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 the auction company Mannion Auctions.
Mr. Mannion assured not to know the reasons for this renunciation, nor if the Flatiron will return, as it was planned during the sale, to a second bidder, Jeff Gural, who represents the owners holding 75% of the building.
Mr. Gural had offered $189.5 million.
“If I have to risk a prediction, I think he will wait for a second auction,” the auctioneer wrote to AFP.
The iconic “Iron” empty since 2019
The Flatiron is a 22-story, 87-meter high office building located in Midtown Manhattan, at the intersection of 22e Street, from the 5e Avenue and Broadway.
Its pointed shape, in “iron”, recognizable among all and which gave it its name, is explained by the crossing of the 5e Avenue and Broadway, Manhattan’s only thoroughfare 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.
Mr. 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, owns the remaining 25%.
In 2021, the four companies sued Silverstein, accusing him of abandoning the Flatiron. Silverstein fought back in a New York court claiming they wanted to lease the building below market.
The municipal justice had summoned the five owners to sell the building at auction.