King Kong swung from it. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr planned to meet at its top in “An Affair to Remember.†And now, the Empire State Building has a new claim to fame: It has gone public.
Shares of Empire State Realty Trust Inc., whose office properties include the iconic 102-story Art Deco tower, raised $929.5 million in one of the largest initial public offerings of a United States real-estate investment trust.
The 71.5 million shares priced at $13, at the low end of the expected range. The REIT will trade under the symbol ESRT on the New York Stock Exchange.
In the eyes of some, the public offering, coming after more than a year of behind-the-scenes rancor, is a significant victory. There are still a few outstanding questions and challenges, including continued litigation and multiple offers from other individuals and groups to buy the Empire State Building outright. But the public offering allowed unit holders, whose stakes in the building date back to the early 1960s, the flexibility many sought to cash out by selling their REIT shares.
The big winners are Peter L. Malkin and his son, Anthony E. Malkin. The public offering allows them to consolidate their intricate empire of buildings that they either owned or controlled in Manhattan and in Stamford, Conn. The offering values their stake at about $460 million. Anthony Malkin is chairman and chief executive of the trust.
While some investors may have bought into the public offering on the romantic idea that they now owned a piece of one of the most famous buildings in the world, one analyst said there it could wind up a good investment.
“There’s a lot of upside opportunity,†said Michael Knott, a managing director with the real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors. He said the REIT could improve occupancy in the buildings, raise rents and increase cash flow. And the not-so-secret secret weapon is the famous observatory in the Empire State Building, which “prints cash,†Mr. Knott said.
But the months of heated battles between the Malkins and a small but vocal group of unit holders who opposed the offering came at a hefty price. The Malkins spent more than a year reaching out to the individuals who held the 3,300 units, trying to persuade them to vote in favor of going public. Various legal challenges were also thrown up in an attempt to derail the offering.
Total costs for the public offering, which include underwriting fees, legal expenses and transfer taxes, add up to about $280 million, Mr. Knott said.
“The cost of this has been incredible,†Mr. Knott said. “The lesson from this is that it’s expensive to live in a courtroom.â€
