The Flatiron Building, the 121-year-old, triangular-shaped New York landmark featured on Manhattan postcards and in movies such as “Spider-Man” and “Godzilla,” is about to enter a new chapter after its sale at a public auction for $190 million to a surprise bidder.

Jacob Garlick, whose LinkedIn profile lists him as managing partner at Abraham Trust, emerged as the winner, beating out Jeffrey Gural, chairman of GFP Real Estate, which with its partners already own a 75% stake in the building. The two engaged in a last-round bidding war Wednesday that Gural said he didn't expect at the auction hosted on the portico at the front entrance of the New York County Courthouse in lower Manhattan.

About 100 people gathered for the event as the auctioneer’s voice was often drowned out by cacophony of background noise, from cars honking to sirens and passing skateboarders. While there were 11 registered bidders, with the auction starting at $50 million and moving up in increments of $2 million before narrowing to $500,000, Garlick and Gural were the only ones raising their respective bidding paddles toward the end.

Auctioneer Matthew Mannion of Mannion Auctions told CoStar News while the size of the crowd that showed up is typical, the Flatiron Building auction had “way more observers than usual,” but that other auctions usually have more bidders.

“If it wasn’t an iconic building, I would have stopped long ago,” Gural said in an interview at the event. “It’s such an iconic building and we own 75%. I really thought that it wasn’t worth anywhere near that but since we are only bidding on 25%, I felt I could overpay for 25%. On the other hand, we are selling for what I consider a very high price. We paid a very low price. The building needs $100 million of upgrades. It’s a lot. We’ve had a good run.”

But Gural admitted “it’s a little disappointing” that he lost the auction.

“It’s a bit of surprise,” he told CoStar News, adding he wouldn’t have typically shown up at an event like this to do the bidding himself if it’s not for such a landmark building. “All it takes is one other bidder. ... It’s a beautiful building.”

As for Garlick, who was visibly excited and emotional, at one point kneeling after Mannion struck the gavel signaling him the winner, he told CoStar News “we are going to make sure it stays one of New York’s most iconic buildings.” He declined to give details on what the plan is for the Flatiron. “We are absolutely honored to own the building,” he said.

The winning bidder has to pay $19 million, or 10% of the total bid, by Friday, Mannion told CoStar.

The public auction came after lawsuits arising from various disputes between Gural’s GFP and the Flatiron’s minority owner, Nathan Silverstein, over renovations, leasing plans, and possibly dividing up the building. A New York state Supreme Court judge earlier this year approved the public auction sale.

“It’s been a lot of aggravation,” Gural said.

The 255,000-square-foot, 22-story building has sat vacant since Macmillan Publishers, which was said to have occupied the entire tower, moved out and relocated downtown in 2019. On the ground floor, T-Mobile remains a retail tenant, with more than 2,900 square feet occupied, CoStar data shows.

Opened in 1902 and designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham as one of New York’s first skyscrapers, the building, located at 175 Fifth Ave. at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway south of 23rd Street, was designated a landmark by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966.

At the time of the decision, the commission said the triangular site gave the French Renaissance tower “a special character and a poetic quality.”

The commission added that “to the New York of 1902 this building represented the very essence of modernity.”