The Real Deal looks back at some of New York’s biggest real estate stories
Chrysler Building
From the October issue: A partnership led by William Zeckendorf’s real estate firm Webb & Knapp paid a record $52 million for three Midtown office properties, including the Chrysler and Graybar buildings, 57 years ago this month. At the time, the purchase by Webb & Knapp and an affiliate of investment bank Lazard Freres & Co. was the most expensive real estate transaction in New York City. The 77-story Chrysler Building, at 405 Lexington Avenue, was the second-tallest building in Manhattan at the time, after the Empire State Building. The third building in the deal was the 32-story Chrysler Building East at 666 Third Avenue. The most expensive transaction previously was two years earlier, when in May 1951 an investment syndicate paid $51.5 million for a controlling interest in the Empire State Building. Zeckendorf struggled to hold on to the buildings he bought, and by 1960 he had sold them to real estate investors Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo. Click here to read about more milestones in real estate history. Compiled by Adam Pincus
