Flatiron Building’s future remains in limbo following auction, even after winning bid of $190M

BY EDDIE SMALL AND C. J. HUGHES

One week after Jacob Garlick’s Virginia rm Abraham Trust shocked the New York real estate world with its surprise winning bid of $190 million to purchase the Flatiron Building, the fate of the iconic property remains far from settled.

Garlick was supposed to put down a $19 million deposit by the end of the day on March 24 to secure the deal and would then have had 90 days to close. However, he had yet to put down this money as of March 29, raising further questions about the already mysterious buyer and his company.

Je Gural’s GFP Real Estate, along with Sorgente Group and ABS Real Estate Partners, together

$189.5 owned 75% of the building and had the second-highest bid at $189.5 million. ey would have the option to purchase it if Abraham Trust doesn’t close, but Gural declined to comment on whether he would exercise this option and described the situation as “crazy.”

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Indeed, in an interview last week, Gural suggested that the bidding had ratcheted up his o er to a level that is too high, and that $189.5 million seems like an unreasonable amount to pay for an early-20th century building that requires $100 million in renovations.

A uid situation

Matthew Mannion of Mannion Auctions, which ran the auction for the property, said the situation is very uid at the moment. He expects Gural to decline his option to buy the Flatiron Building at $189.5 million, which would likely lead to another auction that Abraham Trust would be responsible for funding.

If another auction happens, Abraham Trust would also still be responsible for the 10% down payment on the property, plus fees for the new auction, according to court documents, so he’s hardly out of the woods.

Justice Joel Cohen, the judge who ordered the auction the rst time around, could not be reached by press time.

Since Garlick came out of nowhere last week to buy the terracotta landmark at East 23rd Street, the mystery around him has appeared

Politics

to only deepen. Despite promising last ursday to be available this week for an interview, Garlick has been unreachable.

No one has answered the phone at Abraham Trust’s Reston, Virginia, o ce for days, and on Wednesday the company’s voicemail box was full.

Claiming to invest in media, technology and real estate companies at all stages, Abraham Trust appears to have just a single previous investment under its belt, ac- cording to Crunchbase: FitFight, a company that vows to get people in shape using patented heavy steel bars. Abraham invested $2.5 million in the company in summer 2022.

Upkeep and future uses

e Flatiron Building is subject to bidding because the four entities that own it had been squabbling over its upkeep and future uses. In addition to GFP, Sorgente and ABS, a 25% stake is held by Nathan R. Sil- verstein, whose family reportedly invested in the property around World War II.

In 2021, unhappy with the tangled ownership arrangement, Gural’s side sued Silverstein to force a sale of the building. For his part, Silverstein has said Gural and the others have dragged their feet, depriving him of rent revenue. Silverstein had no comment, and a message left for Jackson Davis, his attorney, was not returned by press time. ■