Empire State Building: a buyer’s manual

From the September issue: The iconic Empire State Building is on the brink of a major ownership shake-up. Its lead owner and manager, Malkin Holdings, has made headlines recently for its efforts to package the 2.9-million-square-foot tower into a real estate investment trust with 18 buildings and other properties. While Malkin is pushing to go public through an IPO, some of real estate’s biggest heavyweights are circling with bids topping $2.3 billion — and one of them could derail Malkin’s plan by making an offer to buy the tower that’s too good to pass up. [more]