U.S.

No More Rocks At Rock Center

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 22, 2000 / 11:49 AM EST / CBS

If you had any doubt that the new millennium would be different from the old, this week's business headlines should have put an end to it.

Tuesday, the Bronfman family - which built up Seagram's over three generations - got out of the liquor business, as the world's third largest alcoholic drinks company was sold to European giant Diageo.

Thursday, word came that there will soon be no Rockefellers among the owners of Rockefeller Center.

The new owners will be real estate giants Tishman Speyer Properties and the Crown family of Chicago, who currently own 5 percent of the complex which sits smack in the middle of Manhattan.

The Crown family also has stakes in the ownership of the New York Yankees, the Chicago bulls and in the defense contractor General Dynamics Corporation.

The $1.85 billion dollar deal will give the now-minority shareholders full control of Rockefeller Center, buying out the ownership interests of banker David Rockefeller, Goldman Sachs Group, the Agnelli family of Italy, and the estate of Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos.

"Rockefeller Center is absolutely unique," said Jerry I. Speyer, president and CEO of Tishman Speyer Properties. "It is a world-renowned property that combines great architecture, great location and an address that is recognized throughout the world."

The sale price comes in well under what the owners reportedly had sought. Rockefeller Center Properties Inc. Trust, which paid $1.2 billion four years ago, had asked for as much as $2.5 billion after putting the center up for sale in May.

The official transfer of title is expected to happen next spring. The minority owners made their first bid on the property Wednesday morning, and it was accepted within hours.

"To be perfectly candid, we thought the pricing was extremely attractive," Speyer said.

The deal comes atop a glitzy four-year refurbishment and a real estate boom after the property had sunk into bankruptcy when the former owner, Japan's Mitsubishi family, walked away from the property amid an economic downturn in the early 1990s.

The 22-acre office building complex ignited the American imagination as a symbol of hope when it was built during the heart of the Depression. Ever since that time, it has anchored New York's midtown as an international symbol of commerce and capitalism, as well as one of the city's top tourist attractions.

Structures at the center include the GE Building, home to NBC, and The Associated Press building, home to the world's largest news organization.

According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the complex earned $43.5 million in 1999 and office rents have tripled. Office vacancies are below 1 percent, down from 26 percent four years ago.