Commercial building in NYC is listed for sale as NFT

After successfully taking over the world of digital art, NFTs are entering the next industry – real estate. The NYC-based real estate firm Okada & Company listed its first commercial property as an NFT on the OpenSea marketplace.

Originally, the seven-story building located in the classy Chelsea neighborhood had ETH 15,000 price tag. But since the beginning of June, the dollar value of ETH dropped 40 percent, which pushed the owner to adjust the price. Now, it is listed for ETH 26,500 ($29,921,150)

NFT or non-fungible tokens are used to give exclusive ownership of unique items. NFTs could represent anything: from drawings and music to collectibles and even tweets. In this case, you get exclusive rights to acquire the building, including all its uses rights and related deed covenants. 

“Yes. You get the property after buying the NFT. Yes you can live in the building. Yes you can rent it out. It’s not just an expensive jpeg,” tweeted Chris Okada, CEO of Okada & Company. 

However, according to the company’s statement, the sale of the NFT does not warrant the completion of the real estate transaction. The future owner will still have to go through the traditional buying procedure and gain a legal deed or title. 

So, why sell a real-life building as an NFT? Through this sale process, Okada & Company plans to create a bridge between traditional real estate and blockchain and use hybrid transactions for both buyers and sellers. The company CEO Chris Okada says that big real estate transactions usually take several months before you can sign a contract. The company aims to speed up this process by using NFT technology.  

“Most transactions of this size take around three-four months before signing a contract. We shall see. The people that reached out have not submitted an offer,” Chris Okada told Cryptonews.com.

The 46,299 square feet commercial property includes retail and office space and an elevator. The building has a perfect Manhattan location – next to Madison Square Park, The Highline, and the Flatiron District. The NFT sale will end on July 16 at 2:21 p.m.

Image credit:

OpenSea marketplace

Resources:

“USA Real Estate Firm Puts New York Building for Sale as NFT,” by Jaroslaw Adamowski (Cryptonews.com)

“Manhattan’s Okada Lists NY Building as NFT for 15,000 ETH,” by Vismaya V (The Crypto Times, 2022)

“Okada & Company Lists a Commercial Building in NY for Sale as NFTs,” by Brandi (NFT New Today, 2022)

“$26.5M NYC Building Listed on OpenSea,” by Aleksandar Gilbert (Yahoo Finance, 2022)

“An NYC office building put up for sale as an Ethereum NFT lost $12.2 million in value over 2 weeks. The owner says they’ll relist,” by Eli Tan and Coindesk (Fortune, 2022)