real estate
Who Owns the Empire State Building? ESRT Shareholders, With Malkin at 13.5%
In brief
Who owns the Empire State Building?
The Empire State Building is owned by Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE: ESRT), a publicly traded real estate investment trust. Anyone with a brokerage account can buy a fractional ownership stake for the price of a single share. Anthony Malkin, ESRT's chairman and chief executive, is the single largest individual holder: the company's 2026 proxy statement puts his beneficial interest at 13.5% of all shares of common stock and operating partnership units, and 14.7% of the voting interest.
The building's current ownership structure traces back to a 1961 real estate syndication that was one of the first in US history to bring small investors into a single landmark property. That syndication was consolidated into ESRT's 2013 IPO, converting thousands of individual investors into public shareholders.
Empire State Realty Trust: the REIT structure
Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESRT) is a New York-focused REIT that owns, manages, and operates commercial real estate in Manhattan. The Empire State Building is its most famous and most profitable asset. As of December 31, 2025 the wider portfolio ran to roughly 7.9 million rentable square feet of office space across 10 Manhattan properties, 0.8 million square feet of retail and 743 residential units, plus entitled land in Stamford, Connecticut. The Empire State Building alone accounted for about 32.3% of portfolio rental revenue. sec.gov
As a REIT, ESRT is required to distribute at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders as dividends. It is governed by a board of directors and holds its assets through an operating partnership, Empire State Realty OP, L.P., in which the REIT owned approximately 61.4% of the aggregate operating partnership units at the end of 2025. The operating partnership structure is standard for public REITs and allows tax-efficient handling of real estate contributed in exchange for OP units, which is why so much of the Malkin interest sits in units rather than listed shares. sec.gov
ESRT's beneficial ownership table, filed with the SEC each spring, is the authoritative record of who holds what. The figures below come from the proxy statement filed on April 2, 2026, with institutional stakes drawn from Schedule 13G filings as of December 31, 2025. sec.gov
| Shareholder / interest holder | Disclosed interest | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Anthony E. Malkin | 13.5% of shares + OP units | Chairman and CEO; 14.7% of the voting interest. Almost all of it is operating partnership units, not listed shares |
| Quark Holding LLC (Qatar Investment Authority) | 17.63% of Class A; 10.76% fully diluted | Bought 29.6m shares at $21.00 in August 2016; votes above 9.9% are proxied to the board |
| BlackRock, Inc. | 8.9% of Class A | Passive index holdings across subsidiaries |
| Ameriprise Financial, Inc. | 7.1% of Class A | Held in a financial-advisor capacity |
| Cohen & Steers, Inc. | 6.58% of Class A | REIT specialist asset manager |
| All directors and executive officers (13 people) | 15.2% of shares + OP units | Includes the Malkin holding above |
ESRT ownership, shares plus operating partnership units (2026 proxy)
The 1961 syndication: a pioneering moment in real estate finance
The Empire State Building's path to public ownership began with one of the most creative real estate transactions in American history. Empire State Building Associates was organized as a New York general partnership on July 11, 1961 by a group assembled by New York real estate lawyer Lawrence Wien and his partner Harry Helmsley, and it acquired the tenant's interest in the master operating leasehold of the building. sec.gov
Wien structured the purchase as a real estate syndication. Rather than a single institutional buyer, the vehicle raised $33,000,000 by selling 3,300 participation units at $10,000 apiece, with fractional units offered at proportionate prices, to individual investors who had mostly never owned commercial real estate before. Those participations were registered with the SEC and the entity kept filing annual reports on them for half a century: as late as December 31, 2012 there were still 2,889 holders of record and 3,300 units outstanding. sec.gov
The layered structure took decades to unwind. Empire State Building Associates held the leasehold and sublet the building to a separate operating company, Empire State Building Company L.L.C., under a net operating sublease with renewal options running to 2076. It did not buy the freehold and the land until April 17, 2002, for $57,500,000, financed with a $60,500,000 first mortgage. sec.gov
In 1961, a New York lawyer sold 3,300 pieces of the Empire State Building at $10,000 each to individual investors. It was one of the first public real estate syndications in history.
The Malkin consolidation and the 2013 IPO
The Wien & Helmsley syndication eventually passed to the Malkin family. Peter Malkin, who had been Wien's law partner, took over management after Wien's death. Peter's son Anthony Malkin became the driving force behind consolidating the fragmented ownership structure into a streamlined public REIT.
The 2013 IPO of Empire State Realty Trust was the mechanism for that consolidation. The original participation holders were offered cash, ESRT shares or operating partnership units in exchange for their interests, and many took paper, becoming holders in the new REIT. ESRT completed the offering on October 7, 2013, selling 82,225,000 shares of Class A common stock at $13.00 each including the underwriters' option in full, for gross proceeds of roughly $1.07 billion. sec.gov
Anthony Malkin joined the predecessor entities as president in 1989, was named Chairman, President and CEO on the 2013 listing, and remains chairman and chief executive today. sec.gov
The other block worth knowing about arrived three years after the listing. On August 23, 2016 ESRT sold 29,610,854 Class A shares to a wholly owned subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority at $21.00 a share, raising about $621.8 million in gross proceeds, and sold a further 284,015 top-up shares in 2018. QIA holds those shares through Quark Holding LLC and has granted the ESRT board an irrevocable proxy to vote anything above 9.9% in line with other common stockholders, so its economic stake is materially larger than its independent voting power. sec.gov
ESRT corporate facts
Legal name: Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.
Listed: NYSE: ESRT
Type: Publicly traded REIT
HQ: New York, New York
Chairman & CEO: Anthony Malkin
Empire State Building
Built: 1930–1931 (completed in 410 days)
Height: 1,454 ft (443m) to antenna tip
Observatory revenue (2025): $128.3M
Address: 350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118
Tenants: Office, observatory, retail
The observatory is the reason the building is unusual as a REIT asset: it is reported as its own segment. ESRT booked $128.3 million of observatory revenue in 2025, against $136.4 million in 2024 and $129.4 million in 2023, on roughly 2.3 million visitors. sec.gov
Frequently asked questions
Can I own part of the Empire State Building?
Yes. Because Empire State Realty Trust is publicly traded on the NYSE (ESRT), any investor can buy shares and own a proportional economic interest in the building and the rest of the portfolio. A single Class A share has changed hands in the high single digits to low teens in recent years, which makes it one of the most accessible iconic real estate investments available to retail investors. Check a live quote before relying on any price quoted here.
Does New York City own the Empire State Building?
No. The Empire State Building is privately owned by Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE: ESRT). New York City does not hold any ownership interest in the building. The city does collect property taxes from ESRT on the building and site.
Who built the Empire State Building?
The Empire State Building was developed by a group that included John J. Raskob (a senior executive at General Motors and du Pont), and was built in 1930–1931 by the general contractor Starrett Brothers and Eken. It was completed in just 410 days, well ahead of schedule. The first owner was the Empire State Inc. company formed by Raskob and partners; the building passed through multiple hands before the Prudential Insurance acquisition in 1951.
The bottom line
- The Empire State Building is owned by Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE: ESRT), a publicly traded REIT. Anyone can buy a fractional ownership stake on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Anthony Malkin runs the company as chairman and CEO and is its largest individual holder, with 13.5% of shares plus operating partnership units and 14.7% of the voting interest per the 2026 proxy statement.
- The Qatar Investment Authority, through Quark Holding LLC, holds 17.63% of the Class A shares and a 10.76% fully diluted economic interest, but has proxied its votes above 9.9% to the board.
- The building's current ownership structure traces to a 1961 real estate syndication that sold 3,300 participations at $10,000 each, raising $33 million from individual investors. That structure was consolidated into the ESRT REIT IPO, completed on October 7, 2013 at $13.00 a share.
- The Empire State Building Observatory generated $128.3 million of revenue in 2025, reported as its own segment in ESRT's accounts.