Spanish tile company pays $40M for historic Madison Square Park building

A Spanish kitchen and bathroom tile company has purchased a historic Madison Square Park building for its U.S. headquarters. According to the Wall Street Journal, Porcelanosa paid $40 million for the 15,000-square-foot building at 202 Fifth Avenue, between 25th and 26th streets. The building is engraved with a Commodore Criterion sign. The signage was a remnant of its former tenant, the Commodore Manufacturing Corp., which recently moved its headquarters to Brooklyn.Porcelanosa, a four-decade-old Spanish company with $1.5 billion in revenue from 400 showrooms in 80 countries, including 18 in the United States, has the rights to rename the building.

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Financial turmoil in Spain has led the country to expand in the U.S. of late, as revenues in America are expected to reach $80 million in 2012 up fro $60 million last year and the firm plans showrooms elsewhere in the country. Poreclanosa will spend about $10 million to renovate the building and expects to open it in the spring of 2014. [WSJ]