The owners of New York’s iconic Chrysler Building have agreed to sell the art deco tower for a fraction of what they paid for it in 2008.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Council, which purchased a 90 percent stake in the building for $800 million, and real estate firm Tishman Speyer, which owned the other 10 percent, are letting the skyscraper go for the bargain price of about $150 million, Reuters reported.
The buyers are a privately owned Austrian real estate company, Signa Holding, and the New York property firm RFR Holding, Reuters said.
One reason for the low price is that it doesn’t include the land the building sits on, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Cooper Union school owns the ground and leases it to the building owners. In 2018, the rent was $32.5 million. It will increase to $41 million a year in 2028.
The Chrysler Building was the tallest building in world when it was completed in 1930. It was surpassed when the Empire State Building was finished in 1931.
The building, one of the most recognizable skyscrapers in New York, has appeared in a number of movies, including “Spider-Man,” “Men in Black 3″ and “The Wiz.”
Neither RFR Holdings nor Tishman Speyer responded to CNN’s requests for comment.