The Rockefeller Center, a New York landmark, has been sold for $1.85 billion, another indication of a booming real estate market in the city, where the New York Times reports that over the last four years the giant financial services and media companies have expanded and tourist numbers soared.
Constructed between 1931 and 1940, the Rockefeller Center was the first complex in the world to integrate offices with shops, gardens, and entertainment. The center occupies 22 acres and includes the General Electric Building (topped by the celebrated Rainbow Room), Radio City Music Hall, and ten landmark office buildings totaling about 8 million sq. ft. The center was sold to the billionaire Lester Crown family of Chicago and developer Jerry I. Speyer, who ran the Rockefeller Center for the last four years as president of real estate company Tishman Speyer. Speyer and Lester Crown’s family, who jointly owned five per cent of the complex, will be acquiring the interests of their partners: David Rockefeller, the former chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank; the Goldman Sachs Group; the Agnelli family of Italy; and the estate of the Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos.
The Rockefeller Center has doubled in value since the Goldman Sachs group bought the bankrupt complex in 1996 from its Japanese owners. The center was put up for auction last year.
Based on a report from i-FM
