The owners of New York's Empire State Building are reportedly planning to launch a new publicly traded company.
According to The New York Times, Malkin Holdings would need to gain the approval from its principal partner in the Empire State Building – the estate of the real estate executive Leona Helmsley – as wells as the 3,400 limited partners in the existing company that owns the famous skyscraper before it can proceed with plans to go public. The proposed public company would include the 102-story landmark, as well as two other New York office towers and six buildings in Westchester County and Connecticut.
Malkin Holdings declined to comment on the New York Times article. If the plan does go forward, it would be the latest in Malkin Holdings' efforts to upgrade the 80-year-old Empire State Building. According to a report in The Real Deal, the company has already spent $20 million on a two-year renovation of the building's lobby and $35 million on upgrading the 86th floor observatory deck. The company is also consolidating and modernizing several hundred thousand square feet of vacant small-office space.
SOURCES: New York Times, The Real Deal
