A prestigious Fifth Avenue skyscraper is up for sale and could fetch US$3 billion or more, which would be a record price for a US office building.
The General Motors building, a 50-story tower built in 1968 at the southeast corner of Central Park across from the Plaza Hotel, occupies a full city block and is best known as the home of two retail tourist attractions, the FAO Schwarz toy emporium and Apple's glass cube store.
General Motors Corp sold the building in 1991 and the automaker now occupies only a few floors.
NEW RECORD
Real estate industry experts said its sale price would easily exceed the previous record of US$1.8 billion, which was set in 2006 by a 41-story building six blocks further south on Fifth Avenue.
One of the potential buyers for the tower is real-estate investor Joseph Cayre, who told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that he, along with unidentified partners in the Middle East, had put in a bid of at least US$3 billion.
A source familiar with the bidding process said real estate investor Larry Silverstein, the developer of the World Trade Center, had also offered at least US$3 billion.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were ongoing.
A spokesman for the tower's owner, Harry Macklowe, declined to comment on Wednesday.
Macklowe bought the building from the insurance firm Conseco for US$1.4 billion in 2003.
PROBLEMS
His organization began soliciting offers after running into a multibillion dollar credit problem associated with the recent purchase of several other expensive Manhattan buildings.
The offers for the GM building demonstrate continued optimism about Manhattan's real estate market, which continues to sizzle.
"You need to separate New York City from the national trend," said Andy Simon, senior managing director of the New York office of the real estate services firm NAI Global.
FUNDAMENTALS
With vacancy rates low, rents going up and relatively little new office space under construction in the metropolis, "the underlying fundamentals in New York for commercial real estate remain very strong," Simon said.
The weak US dollar would also allow foreign investors to buy the skyscraper at something of a discount, Simon said.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS