The Principality of Liechtenstein has 35,000 citizens, three of whom work in its Permanent Mission to the United Nations, an organization that, unlike the Queens–sized, orange-slice-shaped nation wedged between the River Rhine and Austria, is expanding.
The Principality has paid $4.95 million for two commercial condominiums on the 27th floor of 633 Third Avenue, the 41-story tower between 41st and 40th streets where the Mission has long kept offices. Representatives of the German-speaking, constitutional monarchy—led by Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein and Prime Minister Otmar Hasler—signed the deed on Dec. 17, according to city records.
“We bought out the existing space we were renting before, and the adjoining space,” said Gabriela Roth, the Mission’s administrative attaché and a real-life Liechtensteiner. “The whole floor was going to be sold, and our lease would be up this May, so we would have to move or buy it.”
They decided to buy, because they like the building—owned by Time Equities—and it’s only six or so blocks from the United Nations, which might be the building’s most valuable feature, from a diplomatic point of view.
“Sometimes you’ll have one meeting in the morning [at the U.N.] and then go back for a 10 o’clock meeting and then come back and have a lunch meeting in the afternoon, and then have to go back again,” Ms. Roth said.
Ms. Roth is one of six employees and five interns who occupy the office. The acquisition will essentially double the Mission’s office to 5,837 square feet, allowing for a conference room and storage space.
Colliers ABR agents Craig Evans and Jonathan Schindler, who are also marketing the two remaining units, didn’t respond to a request for comment. But the building is apparently popular with the neutral European set (the Principality disbanded its military in 1868 and remained neutral during World Wars I and II). Switzerland’s Mission to the United Nations is a tenant on the 29th floor.
drubinstein@observer.com
