Empire State Building Controller Plans $1 Billion Initial Public Offering

The company that controls the Empire State Building, the landmark 102-story skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, plans to raise as much as $1 billion in a share sale and become a real estate investment trust.

Empire State Realty Trust Inc. plans to list the shares on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The company will consolidate a group of closely held companies to form the REIT as part of the IPO, it said in a separate filing.

Malkin Holdings LLC, supervisor of the company the holds the title to the tower, said in November that it had “embarked on a course of action” that could result in it becoming part of a new REIT. Malkin Holdings supervises property-owning partnerships led by Peter Malkin and his son Anthony Malkin. It owns the 2.9 million-square-foot (269,000-square-meter) Empire State Building in conjunction with the estate of Leona Helmsley.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will advise on the IPO.

No price or number of shares was given in the filing.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ross Larsen at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ross Larsen at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net.