This month in real estate history

From the June issue: The nation’s largest railroad, the bankrupt Penn Central Transportation, announced it would sell 23 Manhattan parcels worth an estimated $1.2 billion, 42 years ago this month. The offering could have yielded the largest sale of real estate in the city by a single owner to that point.

All 23 properties generated about $21 million a year in rent revenue for the railroad, which filed to reorganize in 1970. Included in the assets were the Barclay, Biltmore, Commodore and Roosevelt hotels as well as office buildings at 466 Lexington Avenue and 52 Vanderbilt Street. [more]