The Flatiron Building

The 22-story Flatiron Building, at the intersection of New York City’s Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and 23rd Street, is instantly recognizable for its triangular shape. At the time of completion in 1902, it was among the first and tallest of New York City’s signature skyscrapers. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1989. During the US financial crisis, a top Italian real-estate investment firm, Sorgente Holdings, acquired majority stock in the iconic Flatiron Building. Their long-range plan is to turn the building into a luxury hotel. Since many of the current leases will not expire for ten years, this is a long term project. To Americans, weary of the strains of national debt, it is just another signal of the “melting pot” melting. This purchase of yet another American icon did not shock the country as badly as when Rockefeller Center fell into foreign hands in 1989, a purchase of Japan’s Mitsubishi Group. Still, it carries symbolic weight, as international investors take advantage of the upheaval in the real estate market and the weakness of the US dollar. Overseas investors are jumping into Manhattan’s office market as prices fall and landlords struggle to refinance debt, in numbers that stagger the mind. (by Rap361)

music+image
Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.