(an) Italian buys NYC Flatiron Bldg.

[katty]

more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1813198,00.html

Spurred by the weak dollar and the strong euro, European travelers to the U.S. have been lapping up everything from Gap boxers to iPhones to luxury condos in Palm Beach. Now a top Italian real estate investor has nabbed a crown piece of New York property, a sale that echoes the Japanese purchase of Rockefeller Center in 1989. Valter Mainetti has confirmed to TIME that his company, the Sorgente Group, has acquired a majority share of Manhattan's historic Flatiron building.


Among the first and, at the time, tallest of New York City's signature skyscrapers when it was completed in 1902, the 22-story Flatiron is instantly recognizable for its triangular shape at the intersection of Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and 23rd Street. Though it was dwarfed 30 years later by the Empire State building, 11 blocks up Fifth Avenue, the Flatiron is a favorite of architecture buffs and a lasting star in the skyline, featured in the opening credits of the David Letterman show and serving as the fictional headquarters for the Daily Bugle in the recent Spider-Man movies. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1989. Though not quite the shock of the Mitsubishi Group's purchase of Rockefeller Center, the Flatiron's falling into foreign hands nevertheless carries symbolic weight as international investors take advantage of the upheaval in the real estate market and weakness of the U.S. dollar. The euro closed Monday at $1.56.