Good morning friends.  It was only a week ago that The Empire State Building hosted their historic event for endangered species. We figured to do a nice write up on this larger than life building and Sammy’s first class visit 4 Years Ago from the lobby to the very top. The official opening date of the Empire State Building was May 1st, 1931.  It remained the tallest building in NYC for 40 years until the Twin Towers were built. It took only one year and 45 days to build.  It took almost 7 million man hours to build.  There are observation decks on both the 86th floor and the 102nd.  Over 4 million visitors a year come to visit this bigger than life building.  The total height of the building is 1, 450 feet. I mean it’s literally in the clouds.

As I have mentioned to all of you before,  I was a trader for over 20 years on Wall Street.  But my first job on Wall Street was a cold caller, yes the young man that would not let you off the phone.  Be that as it may, my phone skills are unstoppable, unless of course you hang up on me which plenty of people did and do. So i called up the media department over Four Years Ago, and I said I would like to do a photo shoot at The Empire State Building for my website. They said terrific, lets get you set up.  So we were exchanging information and she asked me describe what kind of pictures I wanted for the article I was going to write.  I told her I wanted to take pictures of Sammy at all the hot spots in the building and particularly on the Observation Decks on Floor 86 and floor 102.

So she said; “Scott who is Sammy?”  I said he’s  my 10 pound Pomeranian dog, he just loves adventures.  So the nice young lady said; “There are no dogs allowed in the Empire State Building.  So i said to myself; “OK Scott, time to break out the old calling skills from Wall Street”  —  So I said; “Young Lady, in this particular sense you can’t really look at him as a dog, in this case he’s a spokesman for “The Empire State Building” in NYC.  My website is going to do a featured story on the worlds most famous building sending more traffic to the building and that traffic will buy tickets to go to the observation decks.  And I repeated “Its really not a dog coming to the building, its a project.  The dog is just part of the project” — And I followed it up with one more closer, “Projects are allowed in the building, right?”  So this sweet young gal said, I wont mention her name, but she said: “Mr. Smith when would you like to come in for the photo shoot?”  — And without hesitation, I said” Tomorrow morning”

So my friends, other then an animated King Kong in 1933 at the top of The Empire State Building, Sammy Smith, the 10 pound Pomeranian to my knowledge is the only dog that was ever allowed in the greatest building ever.  Wait, wait, I just said “dog” — I meant to say “Project”  — A great New York lesson for our friends around the world.  Its all about semantics.  You say “Tomato” and i say Tomahto.   And with that, Sammy the project got to see the Empire State Building with first class personal tour.  They were literally creating restricting areas inside the building for my website to get the pictures I needed.

As I told you my late father was a commercial real estate broker in NYC.  So his job was to move companies from one building to another should a company decide to have their offices somewhere else.  During his years of being a commercial broker he showed prospective tenants many different spaces for lease inside the Empire State Building. But funny enough, the first time I saw this Iconic building was in the 1933 movie with King Kong climbing up it.  And no, I did Not actually see it in 1933 being that I was born in 1969.  King Kong was one of those movies they played ever year until the more recent ones were made like in 1976,  and then  another one in the New Millennium.

Its located on 5th Avenue between 33 and 34 street. Prime real estate for the world’s’ most famous building.  Many a times I have stood right in front of The Empire State Building and looked straight up and because its so tall, I almost fell over to keep looking up and up to find the top of it.  If you are in NYC, you must visit The Empire State Building.  Put it first on your list.