Manhattan Landlord Listed Office as NFT in ETH. Price Fell $12M

A Manhattan landlord Listed His Office Building as an NFT in ETH. After last weeks crypto roller coaster ride,the value of the NFT  dropped by $12 million. The building’s owner, Chris Okada, says it will be relisted in the coming days to reflect ether’s 40% price drop.

A $29 million New York City office building was on the market two weeks ago, but with a Web 3 twist: the property rights are being auctioned as a non-fungible token (NFT) on OpenSea.

The listing price, on the other hand, was set in ether (ETH), which has dropped more than 40% since the beginning of June, taking the building’s list price with it.
The NFT’s monetary value has dropped from $29 million to $16.8 million, though its owner, Chris Okada, says the price will be adjusted soon.

“We’re going to relist the sale at $29.5 million, most probably Thursday,” Okada said on Twitter on Tuesday. “Deciding on staying with ETH or going to USDC. If we go with ETH it’ll be closer to 26,500 ETH.”

It is presently available for 15,000 ETH. It was purchased in late 2021 for $16.25 million.

‘True utility’

Okada is the CEO of Okada & Co, a commercial real estate firm that owns 43 buildings in Manhattan and is looking to diversify its clientele through blockchain.
“There are crypto billionaires and crypto millionaires out there that have no real utility of their cryptocurrency other than actually having it in their wallet,” Okada said in an interview with CoinDesk. “I see this as a marriage of my real estate knowledge and NFT interest.”

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Okada claims he was inspired in part by Gary Vaynerchuck’s Flyfish Club, an NFT membership collection with exclusive access to a yet-to-be-built restaurant.

How does the selling work?

The 109-111 W. 24th St. NFT is not the real deed to the property, but rather an added security layer to prevent large-scale phishing or listing errors.

According to the website, the NFT’s owner is instead granted “exclusive rights to acquire the building, all its uses rights, and related deed covenants.”

After purchasing the NFT, the buyer must go through all of the procedures of a non-blockchain real estate transaction, with the exception of exchanging payments. Buyers are also advised to speak with the company before finalizing the transaction and negotiating a price. (According to Okada, eight possible purchasers have already indicated interest.)

The sale exemplifies both novel use cases for NFTs and their legal limits, as New York’s real estate registration system makes listing a genuine deed as an NFT difficult.

“The sale is really a bridge between the old-guard real estate servers and blockchain,” Okada said. “I will be at that bridge, trying to figure out this connectivity issue. It may not be in New York, it may have to be, you know, Westchester or Miami, or it may be a forward-thinking city.”

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