Empire State Building In a separate transaction, the land underneath the building was sold to Prudential Insurance for $29 million. Helmsley, Wein, and Malkin quickly started a program of minor improvement projects, including the first-ever full-building facade refurbishment and window-washing in 1962, the installation of new flood lights on the 72nd floor in 1964, and replacement of the manually operated elevators with automatic units in 1966. The little-used western end of the second floor was used as a storage space until 1964, at which point it received escalators to the first floor as part of its conversion into a highly-sought retail area. In
Empire State Building the legitimate owners, who at that time were Empire State Land Associates. The building's public areas received a $550 million renovation in 2009 (see ). The building received new air conditioning, waterproofing, a renovated observation deck and lobby, and a relocated 80th-floor gift shop. This included $120 million of energy efficient upgrades, which allowed the building to receive a gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating in September 2011. The new One World Trade Center surpassed the Empire State Building as the tallest LEED-certified building when it opened in 2014. The height of the Empire State Building, to