Stage Set for May 23 Redo of Flatiron Building Auction
Will same cast of characters show up to bid on the triangular landmark?
The stage is set for what may or may not be the final scene in the drama to auction off NYC’s Flatiron Building: this year’s second auction of the triangular Beaux-Arts tower will take place on May 23.
The same cast of characters may or may not show up on the steps of the old county Court House in Lower Manhattan to bid on the Fifth Avenue landmark—there have been no whiffs of Jacob Garlick since he posted a winning bid of $190M and failed to make a $19M deposit after the March 22 auction.
Mannion Auction will again conduct the Flatiron bidding on May 23.
Jeff Gural, currently an owner of the Flatiron Building, told GlobeSt. earlier this month that he was recommending minimum, non-refundable deposits of $1M from bidders on the building.
”We want to ensure that we don’t have another fiasco,” he said. “People who want to bid [should] have to put up a deposit of $1M, non-refundable, or show that they have the financial wherewithal to buy the building, so we don’t have to go through this again.”
However, lawyers representing the plaintiffs and defendants in a court-ordered partition sale negotiate the auction rules with the court-appointed referee. For the May 23 auction, they have agreed that the winning bid must be accompanied by a certified check of $100,000 made out to the referee. Mannion, who will conduct the auction, was not involved in setting the rules.
On March 22, a court-ordered auction of the 22-story building at 175 Fifth Avenue was undertaken at the behest of three partners who owned 75% of the building—Sorgente Group, Gural’s GFP Real Estate and ABS Real Estate Partners—who wanted a divorce from the owner of the remaining 25%, Nathan Silverstein.
GFP was widely expected to emerge as the owner of the Flatiron Building in the partition sale because owners are permitted to use their stakes as part of what is known as a “credit bid.”
Instead, the winning bidder—at a purchase price of $190M—was Garlick, a partner of Washington DC-based Abraham Trust, a self-described multifamily, office and growth equity venture fund. Two days later, Garlick disappeared without leaving the required $19M deposit.