An unidentified Mideast investor’s unsolicited $2.1 billion offer for the Empire State Building may shake the foundations of the iconic skyscraper’s planned IPO. (Getty Images)
Psst, wanna buy the most famous skyscraper in the world?
An unidentified Middle Eastern buyer has become the second party to hand an unsolicited bid to the owner of the iconic tower — offering $2.1 billion cash for the 102-story Empire State Building.
Working with two local families, the bidder — believed to be a non-Arab investor — jumped into a high-stakes bidding fray, according to a regulatory filing.
The local parties are Joe Tabak and Philip Pilevsky, along with his sons Michael and Seth, The Post reported exclusively yesterday on nypost.com.
“To this guy, it’s like buying a painting,” said a source of the Middle Easterner. “It will be very hard to stop them. They will keep ratcheting up [the offer] until they get it.”
The bid outdoes the $2 billion unsolicited offer of last week from Rubin Schron, the part-owner of another landmark skyscraper, the Woolworth Building.
The bids don’t guarantee that the centerpiece of the Big Apple skyline will be sold.
The bids come as the Empire State Building is rolling into a multi-office building IPO by Malkin Holdings, which expects its partner in the operating company, the Helmsley Estate, to sell its shares to the public.
There also are nearly 3,000 shares held by them and other small investors in the land under the building.
Tabak’s commercial real estate history includes his recent sale of the Ring portfolio, a group of Midtown South buildings, to Extell earlier this month. He also was an investor in one of the Toy buildings that was purchased from the Malkins.
Pilevsky owns many properties in the tristate area, including 40 Rector St., and he developed the Bryant Park Hotel.
“This is a real bid,” said one source familiar with the thinking. “They will work with the Malkins and want to upscale the retail and make other changes.”
Opened in 1931, the Midtown tower, with 2.95 million square feet, was valued at $2.3 billion — or $780 per square foot — in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By contrast, City Hall valued the 88 percent-occupied property at just $775,009,000.
Even with some tax exemptions for its energy-efficiency and elevator improvements, it still pays roughly $31 million a year in property taxes.
The Malkins broke the news of the latest bid in an SEC filing yesterday, saying, “We received last week two unsolicited bids to purchase the Empire State Building, one for $2 billion and one for $2.1 billion.
“We are reviewing the offers and their terms. We consider all matters, including unsolicited offers, consistent with our fiduciary duties, to form a judgment on what action is appropriate. We do not intend to issue a comment until after our review.”
The review will determine the tax implications a sale would have on investors — and whether a publicly traded REIT or a sale is better.
Lawyer Stephen Meister, who represents some of the smaller investors in the skyscraper, noted, “If the offer [for the Empire State Building] is a better one, [Malkin] has a responsibility to consider it.”
No one returned calls for comment.