Real Estate: A Piece of The Sky

For 40 years, there was nothing like it in the history of the world: the Empire State Building. Rising from midtown Manhattan during the bitter dawn of the Great Depression, its 6,500 windows, 10 million bricks and then record 102 stories became an instant urban icon. A movie encounter with King Kong in 1933 only added to the building's reputation.

Although it no longer rules the heavens (Chicago's Sears Tower, at 1,454 ft., and New York City's own World Trade Center, 1,368 ft., soar higher than the Empire State Building's now modest 1,250 ft.), the grande dame of skyscrapers is apparently still fetching enough to win a new suitor. According to the Wall Street Journal, the landmark's current owner, Prudential Insurance Co., is selling the legendary edifice for a comparatively paltry $40 million. The reported buyer: a member of the Grace family, which founded W.R. Grace & Co.

While the deal seems a steal by current New York City prices, the building's ( unknown new owner must contend with a pre-existing leasing arrangement that will lock in the rates on Empire State Building office space for decades to come.