New York’s iconic Flatiron Building, known for its distinctive wedge design that evokes the shape of a vintage iron, sold for $190 million at auction yesterday, March 22. Earlier this month, the New York State Supreme Court determined that the building would be sold to the highest bidder resolve the irreconcilable differences between its five former partners. Four of the owners have sued for a sheet music auction in a last-ditch effort to boot the fifth owner, Nathan Silverstein, who is said to have blocked renovations to the building that has been unoccupied since 2019.
But the auction took an unexpected turn yesterday when a foreign bidder named Jacob Garlick of investment firm Abraham Trust rated former shareholder Jeffrey Gural.
While the Flatiron Building was open to anyone who could make money through a public auction, GFP Real Estate’s Gural and the three other stakeholders sought to use their existing stakes for “bids”. of credit” in order to lock the remaining 25% of the building. that Silverstein owned. The building was auctioned off by Matthew D. Mannion of Mannion Auctions on the steps of the State Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan.
Mannion confirmed with Hyperallergic that there were 12 registered bidders for the building, but only five of them made offers, with the opening being for $50 million.
“The minimum bid increment was $500,000 at the end of the auction, so the 75% shareholders stopped bidding at $189,500,000.00 and the highest bidder won at 190,000. $000.00,” Mannion added. It’s unclear how much higher Garlick would have gone, but it seems like the sky was the limit considering he said NY1 that owning the Flatiron Building had been a “lifetime dream” since he was 14 years old.
Garlick did not reveal what he intended to do with the building and did not immediately respond to Hyperallergic request for comment. It looks like he has his work cut out for him, as Gural mentioned that the building needs around $100 million in upgrades. After a 60-year run, Macmillan Publishers vacated the building in 2019 and it has stood empty since then as the building needed some modernization, including fire safety upgrades, in order to be legally leased to a new tenant.
All of this work can be done later, as Mannion informed Hyperallergic that Garlick “must submit a deposit of 10% of his offer no later than tomorrow or he will be found in default”. If Garlick defaults on his deposit, Gural would have the option of buying out the building with his highest bid of $189.5 million.
