News on 02 January 2001
The Rockefeller Center, a New York landmark, has been sold
to developer Jerry I. Speyer and the billionaire Lester Crown family of
Chicago. The deal severs the Rockefellers' remaining links to the historic
complex that bears the family's name. Mr. Speyer ran Rockefeller Center
for the last four years as president of real estate company Tishman Speyer.
Constructed between 1931 and 1940, the Rockefeller Center was the first
complex in the world to integrate offices with shops, entertainment and
gardens. The mix has been much imitated around the world. The centre covers
22 acres and includes the General Electric Building (topped by the famous
Rainbow Room) and Radio City Music Hall as well as 10 landmark office
buildings totaling about 740,000 sq m (8m sq ft).
Under the terms of the deal, Speyer and Lester Crown's family, which together
owned five per cent of the complex, will be acquiring the interests of
their partners: David Rockefeller, the former chairman of Chase Manhattan
Bank; the Goldman Sachs Group; the Agnelli family of Italy; and the estate
of the Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos.
The New York Times says the sale is another indication of a booming real
estate market in the city, where over the last four years the giant financial
services and media companies expanded and tourist numbers soared.
The Rockefeller Center has doubled in value since the Goldman Sachs group
bought it in 1996 for the equivalent of $900 million. At that point it
had slipped into bankruptcy and the Japanese company that owned the complex
had walked away from what it thought was a losing investment. The centre
was put up for auction last year.
