Empire State Building marks 90th birthday

Ninety years ago, on May 1, 1931, the Empire State Building was formally opened to the public. The owner, Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), which has properties in Westchester and Fairfield in its portfolio, has launched a yearlong series of events and promotions to mark the milestone.

“The Empire State Building, the international icon and symbol of dreams, was a record breaker and trendsetter 90 years ago,” said Anthony E. Malkin, chairman, president and CEO of ESRT. “Today she is fully modernized for the 21^st century, a world leader in energy efficiency retrofits in the built environment, indoor environmental quality and on building health practices.”

Malkin pledged that the company will build on the history that has made the Empire State the city skyline”™s undisputed landmark.

“We will continue to innovate and push boundaries in technology, sustainability and tourism to ensure that the Empire State Building remains America’s Favorite Building for the next 90 years as well,” Malkin said.

ESRT calculates the building”™s height as 1,454 feet. When originally built it was 1,250 feet, which was increased in 1950 to 1,472 feet with the addition of a TV transmission tower for New York City”™s TV stations. In 1985, when the antenna was replaced, the height came down to the current 1,454 feet.

ESRT values the recent renovations and enhancements to the building”™s observatory offerings at $165 million with a dedicated guest entrance, interactive museum with nine galleries, redesigned 102nd Floor Observatory with floor-to-ceiling windows, and upgraded 86th Floor Observatory offering open-air 360-degree views.Over the last 10 years, the Empire State Building underwent an energy and efficiency retrofit as part of a $550 million upgrading and modernization program.

ESRT showed 10.1 million rentable square feet in its portfolio of office and retail properties as of last Dec. 31. It had two office properties in Westchester, three in Fairfield County and nine in Manhattan.

The development was put together by The Empire State Inc., a group of wealthy investors who selected former New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith to head their company. The building was redesigned a number of times to make sure it would be taller than the rival Chrysler Building and Bank of Manhattan Building.

Site work at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue had been underway for a couple of months when actual construction of the Empire State Building began on March 17, 1930.

During the peak of construction activity in the summer of 1930, almost 3,500 workers were on the job each day. That of course was before federal safety regulations. Newspaper reports placed the number of construction-related deaths at from five to 14. The cost for the project was said to be just under $41 million, which in today”™s dollars would translate to something over $550 million.

When the building opened, there were few tenants and it took almost 20 years before the building was showing a profit.

For many people, the building”™s position as a real estate icon can be traced to 1933 when the movie “King Kong” was released and included the momentous event of Kong falling from the tower after having been attacked by a fleet of airplanes.

There was real-life drama on July 28, 1945, when a U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the north side of the building 935 feet above the street. The airplane was lost in the fog while flying from Bedford, Massachusetts, to LaGuardia Airport. The three people on the plane and 11 others in the building and on the ground were reported to have been killed.