An attorney for Rubin Schron, president of Cammeby’s International, and one of the city’s major property owners, sent a letter Tuesday to a lawyer representing the company that controls the Empire State Building, Malkin Holdings, offering to buy the iconic skyscraper for $2 billion in an all-cash deal.
Schron proposed to make a $50 million non-refundable deposit once the contract was signed, and close within 90 days, the letter, written by Stephen Meister, partner at the law firm Meister, Seelig and Fein, says.
Schron alternately offers to give the current owners an option to participate in the new ownership structure in the 102-story tower, located at 350 Fifth Avenue.
The proposal comes almost a month after the required 80 percent of the building’s investors signed on to approve the creation of a real estate investment trust, Empire State Realty Trust, composed of the tower and 20 other buildings.
By some measures, the skyscraper is worth some $2.5 billion, according to published reports.
Yet the crux of the matter is not the value of the building, but the value of the stock, the letter argues.
“There is, of course, no guaranty of the price at which Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. securities will trade once the lock-out period expires,” Meister said in his letter. “For that reason, we trust that Malkin Holdings, consistent with its fiduciary duties, will give serious consideration to this offer.”
Malkin, Schron and Malkin’s attorney Thomas Dewey, a partner at the law firm Dewey Pegno & Kramarsky, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meister has been battling the initial public offering of the Empire State Building for months, and as of May represented six clients who objected to a $55 million settlement that resolved a series of lawsuits from shareholders who had opposed the REIT’s formation.
