From left: Anthony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, the Empire State Building

The owners of the Empire State Building have inked a $55 million settlement with a group of investors who challenged their plan to create a real estate investment trust that would include the iconic Midtown office tower, Law360 reported.

In February, Malkin Holdings and the estate of Leona Helmsley announced plans to raise up to $1 billion through a REIT that would include the Empire State Building and 11 additional properties in New York and Connecticut. Shortly after, investor Leon Meyers sued to block the plan, and a handful of other lawsuits followed. [more]

From left: Empire State Building and Leona Helmsley

The five executors responsible for handling the complex affairs of the late, notorious real estate baroness Leona Helmsley, will each be handsomely compensated for the task, DNAinfo reported. A Manhattan Surrogate Court judge recently approved payments of $900,000 for the executors, who include two Helmsley grandsons, her brother, her lawyer Sandor Frankel, and her friend John Codey, DNAinfo said.

The judge who signed off on the deal said Helmsley “entrusted her executors with an estate of singular magnitude and extraordinary complexity,” according to DNAinfo. Helmsley’s estate owns part of the Empire State Building, as well as hundreds of other properties, part of the vast empire Helmsley accumulated, all the while becoming a widely hated landlord. [more]

From left: Empire State Building and Anthony Malkin

A letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that the Malkin family has revised the structure of the initial public offering planned for the Empire State building, which the family controls, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The new proposed structure would give investors in the building, of whom there are approximately 2,800, the same favorable tax treatment as the Malkin family.  [more]

From left: Anthony Malkin and the Empire State
Building

Malkin Holdings, operator of the Empire State Building, said it “embarked on a course of action” to become a real estate investment trust, in a regulatory filing today, Bloomberg reported. Documents could be filed with the SEC to make the 2.9 million-square-foot tower a publicly traded entity as soon as February. As The Real Deal previously reported, the Malkins had been considering this move since at least April. The landmarked tower, which has undergone a $550 million capital improvements program in recent years, would present a lucrative opportunity for investors, as prices for trophy towers rise as the recession fades. … [more]

From left: Norman Vincent Pearle, J.C. Penney, Harry Helmsley and a mausoleum at Woodlawn
Cemetery

A 101-year-old Greek Revival mausoleum in Woodlawn, on Webster Avenue in the Bronx, owned by the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale who wrote “The Power of Positive Thinking,” has hit the market for $750,000, the New York Times reported. The mausoleum is one of three for sale in Woodlawn. It is available for immediate occupancy and sleeps eight, according to Woodlawn Cemetery staff historian Susan Olsen. Peale’s family decided at the last moment to bury him in Pawling, N.Y.

Peale bought the mausoleum in 1956 for $15,000.

In New York, people are willing to pay big bucks for a decent resting place. Mausoleums trade in the same manner as co-ops, the Times said, and with cemeteries filling up fast, officials regularly suggest sales to those who own empty lots…. [more]

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously signed off today on a gut renovation of the Carlton House Hotel, according to an announcement from Extell Development, which is overseeing the project with partner Angelo Gordon & Company.

The partners picked up the property from the Helmsley estate last March for $170 million, closing it this past February in order to prepare for a conversion.

Originally built in 1951 as the Helmsley Carlton House, the building at 680 Madison Avenue currently contains 157 hotel and residential units, which were being vacated by the developers as their leases expired. Among the changes now planned: a two-story addition and two new infill buildings on the building’s north and south sides, an upgrade to its 32,000-square-foot retail space and a restoration of the exterior façade, Extell said today. – Sarabeth Sanders… [more]

Trouble, the well-dressed Maltese that was bequeathed $12 million by “Queen of Mean” real estate mogul Leona Helmsley in 2007, has died, according to the Daily News. She was 12, or 84 in dog years. Trouble was one of the world’s richest dogs, even after a judge later decided to knock $10 million off the inheritance Helmsley had left to her. True New Yorker that she was, Trouble used the money to retire to Florida, where she was looked after by Carl Lekic, general manager of Sarasota’s Helmsley Sandcastle hotel. Lekic helped her get by on $100,000 per year at the hotel, which covered $8,000 for grooming, $1,200 for food, and the remainder for Lekic’s salary and for a full-time security guard, deemed necessary after the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust received between 20 and 30 death and kidnapping threats against the pampered pooch. … [more]

Leona Helmsley and New York Helmsley HotelHost Hotels & Resorts, the real estate investment trust that owns the Four Seasons in Philadelphia, the St. Regis in Houston and 102 other luxury properties, has struck a deal to buy the New York Helmsley Hotel for between $310 million and $315 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal, which works out to at least $401,000 per room, is the latest in a slow-moving liquidation process of the estate of Leona Helmsley, who died in 2007. … [more]

Leona Helmsley’s Greenwich, Conn. estate has sold for $35 million, less than a third of its original $125 million listing price and 36 percent off its last asking price of $55 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Still, the sale makes Dunnellen Hall, as the 40-acre property is called, one of the most expensive homes ever sold in the posh town. The property, acquired by the Helmsley family in 1983 for $11 million, includes a 22,000-square-foot mansion, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts and two guest cottages. It was at the center of a federal tax evasion case in which Helmsley and her husband, Harry, were accused of putting $3 million of their company’s funds into renovations of the property. Leona Helmsley, who was convicted and served under two years in prison, died in 2007 at age 87. Proceeds from the sale of the Greenwich estate will go to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, which owns much the couple’s real estate holdings, including a stake in the Empire State Building with the Malkin family that is reportedly up for sale. [WSJ]

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Dunnellen Hall, the Greenwich, Conn. estate belonging to the late hotel and real estate mogul Leona Helmsley is nearing a deal for less than half of its original $125 million asking price, the Post reported. Sources said the buyers are currently negotiating a contract on the 25-room mansion, which sits on 40 acres and has been neglected in recent years, for around $55 million. It was last listed for $60 million after three years and three rounds of price cuts. The estate, acquired by the Helmsleys in 1983 for $11 million, also includes a 52-foot indoor pool, a 72-foot outdoor pool, a reflecting pool and fountain, wine cellar, theater, tennis courts and two guest cottages. The owner will pay $183,000 per year in property taxes alone. Proceeds of the sale are slated to go to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, which primarily backs health care and medical research. Leona Helmsley died at age 87 in 2007, famously leaving more than $11 million — later reduced by a judge to $2 million — to her dog. [Post]

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