HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: A FINANCIAL FLOP FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS QUICKLIQUIDITY
The Empire State Building was completed in May of 1931 and became the world’ s tallest building, a title it would hold for nearly 40 years until the World Trade Center was completed in 1970. While successful in beating the Chrysler Building in height, the Empire State Building was far from being the success Raskob had hoped.
The Empire State Building was stymied from the start due to the onset of the Great Depression a few years prior. The Great Depression brought the United States economy to it’ s knees. The stock market collapsed, nearly half of the US banks had failed, and at its height unemployment sat at 25 % with over 13 million Americans looking for work. In only three years the average income of American families plummeted by 40 %. While the Empire State Building gave New York City a sense of pride which it desperately needed, it also contributed to Manhattan’ s 92 % increase of inventory for office space during the Great Depression ².
One year after it’ s opening, the Empire State Building had an occupancy of only 25 % and remained that way for most of the 30’ s, earning it the nickname the“ Empty State Building.” At times, workers were told to turn on lights on the higher floors to create the illusion that they were occupied ³. Finding tenants for the building was harder than expected. In addition to the obstacles created by the Great Depression, vacancies were worsened by the buildings relatively long distance from public transportation hubs in the city, such as Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Successful buildings, such as the Chrysler Building, did not have this problem⁴. The Empire State Building did not become profitable for nearly 20 years until after World War II when companies flooded Manhattan and space became scarce⁵.