Abu Dhabi fund buys NYC Chrysler building for $800m

The Chrysler building, an Art Deco icon of the New York City skyline, has sold to a fund controlled by Abu Dhabi for $800m.

The building, completed in 1930 for the automotive company Chrysler, was briefly the tallest building in the world. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council, a sovereign wealth fund controlled by the oil-rich sheikdom paid $800m for the 77-story building, Bloomberg reported. The seller was a fund managed by Prudential Financial and the sale was finalized yesterday.

The graceful tower overlooks the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. It is beloved for the upper stories' ornamental arches and the stylised eagle sculptures that jut out from near the top of the tower, as if keeping watch over the city.

Bloomberg pointed out that it is the second sale of a major New York tower to a Middle Eastern buyer in as many months. The General Motors Building was sold to a Boston Properties consortium that included a Dubai fund last month.

It used - USED - to be my favorite building here in the city.Now I can't even stand to look at it.

The government of Abu Dhabi bought a 75 percent stake in the landmark Chrysler Building on Tuesday for $800 million from a German real estate fund managed by Prudential Real Estate Investors.

You would think that Abu Dhabi got a controlling interest in New York’s Art Deco masterpiece for that kind of money. But you would be wrong.

Despite having only a minority holding, Tishman Speyer Properties will continue to control the property, much as it has since 1997. That is because it controls the land beneath the 77-story tower with the stainless steel crown, gargoyles and elevator cabs that evoke the chrome laden autos of years gone by.