Empire State Building IPO Filing (ESB)

The Empire State Building is soon to be public.  At least its owner and operator, Empire State Realty Trust, will be a public company.  The real estate investment trust has filed for its initial public offering under the name Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.  This is actually a deal which had been rumored for some time.

The filing is for up to $1 billion in shares to be sold although no financial terms were disclosed.  As for the stock, that will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ESB.”  So far, only BofA Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs & Co. were named as the underwriters.

The company is technically a Maryland corporation organized as a REIT.  As of September 30, 2011, the REIT owned 12 office properties with approximately 7.7 million rentable square feet of office space that was 79.9% leased.  The figure was called 83.0% giving effect to leases signed but not yet commenced as of that date.

The company noted, “Seven of these properties are located in the midtown Manhattan market and encompass in the aggregate approximately 5.8 million rentable square feet of office space, including the Empire State Building, the world’s most famous office building. Our Manhattan office properties also contain an aggregate of 432,176 rentable square feet of premier retail space on their ground floor and/or lower levels. Our remaining five office properties are located in Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York, encompassing in the aggregate approximately 1.8 million rentable square feet.”

FULL SEC FILING