Abu Dhabi buys New York's Chrysler Building

Abu Dhabi buys New York's Chrysler Building
Bloomberg Published: July 10, 2008, 00:04

New York: New York's Chrysler Building, the Art Deco icon that helps define the New York skyline, was bought by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, the second purchase of a Manhattan landmark by Middle East investors in many months.

The skyscraper at 405 Lexington Avenue, the world's tallest building until 1931, was acquired yesterday by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council for an undisclosed price. Last month a Dubai fund, Boston Properties, and Goldman Sachs Group paid $2.8 billion for the General Motors Building.

Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and other Gulf countries flush with oil revenue have taken advantage of falling prices to invest in real estate and financial companies around the world.

Middle Eastern investors have spent $1.8 billion this year on commercial property in the US, more than other international buyers, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based property research firm.

"We're sending our money their way" to purchase oil, "and that money is coming back and buying our assets", said Dan Fasulo, market analysis director at Real Capital.

Abu Dhabi Investment Council acquired the Chrysler Building from a fund managed by Prudential Financial, said Theresa Miller, spokeswoman for the Newark, New Jersey-based insurer. Rick Matthews, a spokesman for Tishman Speyer Properties, which owns a minority stake in the tower, declined to comment.

Abu Dhabi Investment Council is prohibited by law from discussing its investments, an official said when contacted by telephone yesterday.

The Abu Dhabi fund was set to pay about $800 million for the building, said a person with knowledge of the transaction on June 11.

The 77-storey tower, designed by William Van Alen, was completed in 1930 on behalf of then-owner Chrysler and its founder Walter Chrysler.

At 319 metres, the Chrysler Building was the world's tallest skyscraper before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building a year later.