AIG Close To Selling Two Downtown Buildings

Embattled insurance giant AIG may be near a deal to sell two buildings—70 Pine Street and 72 Wall Street which are connected by skywalk—for $100 million to an overseas buyer, according to the Post. The deal is rumored to be for $100 million: "The buyers expect to create a mixed-use development that could include residential and retail. But because of anti-terror legislation, the Dept. of State will have to approve any overseas buyer." Well, $100 million is still way less than AIG's executive compensation payouts (AIG has received $182.5 billion in government aid). The company plans to move its employees in 2010.

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By Jen Chung in News on June 3, 2009 1:58 PM

Comments [rss]

JacqueMehoff

I thought those buildings housed the insurance group?

Where are they going?

longacre

Kind of a big omission on the Post's part. It could be a lease-back deal, where they sell the property and then lease it back from the new owner. Or maybe they're shipping off those thousands of jobs to Jersey or Wichita or something.

Also, only $100 million for not one, but two huge buildings in the heart of the financial district? Something sounds wrong here.

NannyState

I'm doing the same double take. $100 mln for 70 Pine St? That tower alone is worth well over half a billion by any reasonable standard. So let's get this straight: we the taxpayers own this goddamn zombie so naturally the thing to do is sell chunks of it off for nothing to "an overseas buyer"...

longacre

Interesting, I was just reading up about this building a couple days ago. It was the third tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1932. It was built on behalf of a company with its own share of controversy these days...Cities Services Company, which today is known as Citgo and owned by the government of Venezuela.