New York iconic and second most famous Skyscraper Chrysler Building that featured in movies like Spider-Man, Men In Black 3 is up for sale.
The minority owner and a broker company stacom hired to sell the property informed media.
The 77-story skyscraper, briefly the world’s tallest building after it was finished in 1930, is 90% owned by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, with developer Tishman Speyer owning the rest 10%.
Now it is the 8th tallest building in the city at 318.9 metres. The Chrysler Building was constructed by Walter Chrysler, head of Chrysler Corporation. It was the home of the American automaker until 1953.
The 1.26m sq ft building underwent a $100m renovation after Tishman acquired the property in 1997. Tishman later reduced its holding. The sovereign wealth fund paid $800m when it bought its stake in 2008.
The stainless steel-clad building is on 42nd Street, just east of Grand Central Terminal, a major Manhattan transportation hub, are ripe for greater retail exploitation, Stacom said.
Stacom declined to give the building’s asking price.
The building’s occupancy rate is in the low 80% range, below the city average, according to CBRE.
Buildings on average are 50 years old in Midtown and many storefronts are empty, hard hit by e-commerce.
But Midtown remains a favored business destination. JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to build a new headquarters on nearby Park Avenue. One Vanderbilt, a marquee office tower, is rising just west of Grand Central.
Age could be a selling point, too, as seen by the popularity of Midtown south, which has the city’s lowest vacancy rate and companies such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc occupy century-old structures.
The decision to sell a property is driven by numerous factors, not often due to unsatisfactory performance, said Patrice Derrington, director of the real estate development program at Columbia University.