JP Morgan is Selling its Gold Vault at 1 CMP!

With JPMorgan’s COMEX gold inventories plunging to all-time lows, it appears that Mr. Dimon has no use for an empty (and now publicly known) gold vault, as Bloomberg reports that JP Morgan is seeking to sell its 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza tower, which houses the world’s largest commercial gold vault 5 stories below street level. With Ted Butler recently claiming that JP Morgan has now cornered the (paper) gold market to the long side, the 1 CMP sale may indicate that Blythe and Jamie can see the writing on the wall for the coming 3rd (mania) phase of the precious metals bull market, and have indeed decided to get out of the short manipulation game while the getting is good.


As Bloomberg reports, the massive tower is expected to fetch roughly the same amount that JPM recently coughed up in fines to FERC over Blythe Masters’ ENRONesque SNAFU:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is seeking to sell 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, the lower Manhattan tower built by David Rockefeller in the late 1950s, as the company reduces its office space in the city.

The bank would relocate about 4,000 employees, most of the people who work in the 60-story skyscraper, to other New York locations, said Brian Marchiony, a spokesman. JPMorgan occupies about half of the space in 2.2 million-square-foot (204,000-square-meter) building, according to CoStar Group Inc. (CSGP), a Washington-based firm that follows office leasing.

The building may fetch at least $600 million, according to a person with knowledge of the offering. The cost to buyers would be higher because they would assume any conversion expenses, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

An offering of the tower, a city landmark designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft, would test the downtown office market. Shrinking financial companies have left lower Manhattan landlords with at least 6.3 million square feet of space to fill, according to data from brokerage Newmark Knight Frank Grubb. The tower may achieve its highest value as a mixed-use property, with a hotel, additional retail or apartments added, said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics Inc., a New York-based research firm that tracks commercial real estate sales.

“You could do a department store in the base,” he said. “It’s a very exciting potential mixed-use opportunity, in my mind. I think the market will receive it very well.”