If the $260 million park floating above the Hudson River is “Diller Island,” then the Frank Gehry-designed IAC headquarters in West Chelsea is the Barry Diller mainland.
And now a piece of Diller nation is up for grabs.
The family that owns the land underneath the IAC office building at 555 West 18th Street has put the property up for sale, The Real Deal has learned.
The Resnicoff family ground-leased the site in 2004 to the Georgetown Company, which developed the iconic 200,000-square-foot office building with its white, sail-like facade as the headquarters for Diller’s media conglomerate that is the parent company of Dotdash Meredith and The Daily Beast. That ground lease with Georgetown has a rent reset coming up in four years, which gives a new owner the chance to capitalize on the increase in West Chelsea property values over the past 20 years.
No asking price is set, but the deal is expected to come in under $100 million.
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A Marcus & Millichap team led by Eric Anton and Steven Siegel is marketing the property. Anton declined to comment.
The IAC building was ground-breaking when Georgetown developed it in 2005. West Chelsea, long home to gritty industrial buildings and art galleries, was just emerging as a trendy destination for companies and high-end condo buyers.
It was also becoming a playground for cutting edge architecture, and the IAC building was Gehry’s first project in New York City.
The structure was seen as part of a major shift away from cold, traditional office buildings to free-wheeling creative spaces.
And Diller, of course, left his mark on the neighborhood. The billionaire spearheaded the creation of Little Island park, where he bumped heads with Douglas Durst over the use of public space.
After a drawn out legal battle, Diller eventually won and Little Island opened to the public last year.