Empire State Building moves forward on IPO

The shareholders that control the Empire State Building announced Wednesday that they will move forward with making the building public, according to Bloomberg.

The Malkin Group suggested the skyscraper and about 20 other Manhattan properties go public, but it took four months to get enough investor votes to move forward.

The group has been pushing for an IPO for months but by law could not without the support of 80 percent of its shareholders.

Peter and Tony Malkin, who run the Malkin Group, resorted to calling shareholders individually to get their votes. Now they await a decision from the New York appellate court. A New York superior court judge declined to block the IPO plans last month, CNN reported.

Until 1973, when the World Trade Center was built, the Empire State Building was the tallest skyscraper in the world. It was built in 1931 and has 102 stories.

The late former owner Harry Helmsley purchased the building in 1961 with Lawrence Wien. Small shareholders invested in the building. Each share cost $10,000 at the time, roughly the equivalent of $323,803 today.

When Harry's widow Leona Helmsley died in 2007, her will ordered all her real estate holdings be sold and proceeds given to a charitable trust.

The need to sell the holdings has led the Malkin Group to move to go public, which minority shareholders say will give heirs of the Helmsley family and the Malkin Group an unfair benefit.

The buildings will likely be combined in a real estate investment trust, which may lead to an overall lower payout than the Empire State Building alone would return from current shares.