Iconic Flatiron Building up for auction

A little bit of New York will be up for sale soon.

As a result of the ongoing disputes between the current owners of the iconic Manhattan building, the property will soon be available to the highest bidder.

The 121-year-old Flatiron Building, which is currently vacant, will be auctioned off in a so-called partition sale on March 22, following a ruling in a contentious legal battle between its many homeowners.

In January, a New York State judge issued an order allowing the auction to proceed following a 2021 lawsuit filed by Sorgente Group, Jeffrey Gural’s GFP Real Estate and ABS Real Estate Partners, who together own 75% of the building. .

The co-owners sued after reaching an impasse with Nathan Silverstein, who owns 25% of the steel-framed building at 175 Fifth Avenue, which was completed in 1902 and named after the surrounding neighborhood.

Due to the fact that the building is jointly owned, which gives each owner the right to veto every important construction decision, the parties not only failed to agree, but also failed to move forward, trapped in a very expensive standoff over the future of an extremely expensive real estate object. property.

The situation became untenable after MacMillan Publishers, which at the time occupied all 21 floors of the triangular structure, announced in 2017 that it was moving out within two years.

Subsequently, Silverstein proposed a variety of ideas that Gural considers “absurd,” including a ban on upgrades between McMillan’s departure and the new tenant moving in, despite the fact that the upgrade was required by law for the building’s re-tenancy and for fire safety, Gural said. , according to sworn testimony.

Despite the building being a tourist attraction, Silverstein also had the idea to divide the property into separate parts, which is impossible due to its historical status, writes Gural, according to Real Deal.

“It’s mind-boggling to suggest that we could still agree on a plan to physically divide this building into five small independent units, none of which will be for sale, and then agree on a plan to fund this work.” Gural wrote in a letter under oath. “For many years, we tried to resolve these differences with Mr. Silverstein, but the defendant hesitated, resisted, and ultimately refused to agree to the business plan proposed by the plaintiffs.”

Silverstein, meanwhile, alleges that Newmark was unable to sell the property when MacMillan announced it was leaving, and then Gural attempted to rent the space at “an exceptionally low price per square foot” and an extremely long contract with Knotel that Newmark’s Barry Gossin had a significant proportion of

“The proposed lease agreement would have placed the property in a bad lease for an extended period of time,” Silverstein wrote in a sworn letter.

The Sorgente-GFP-ABS group is likely to participate in the auction later this month, Gural said in a previous filing, according to Real Deal.