Empire State Realty Trust, owners of the iconic Empire State Building, filed to sell up to $1 billion of its Class A common stock, giving ordinary investors a chance to own a piece of the skyscraper that has been fought over by billionaires.

The tower, once the world’s tallest, has seen several owners over the decades and had been at the centre of a legal battle among the Malkin family, which controls the company, property tycoon Donald Trump and real estate heiress Leona Helmsley.

The Malkin family bought the property in 2002 but gained total control of the 102-storey building in 2010 after much wrangling.

In November, Malkin Holdings had said it would likely file to become a publicly traded real estate investment trust within three months. Like a slew of recent tech and Internet IPOs, the company will have two classes of stock: Class A share being sold to the public worth one vote and Class B shares with 50 votes each.

The structure gives significant control to the Malkin family.

Though the skyscraper, also known for its starring role in the movie King Kong, accounts for the largest chunk of the REIT’s revenue, the company also owns 12 office properties and six standalone retail properties, as of Sept. 30, mostly located in midtown Manhattan.

The proceeds will be used to pay existing stakeholders in the buildings who chose to receive cash in exchange for their interests, and to repay debt.

The REIT plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the Symbol “ESB.”

The Empire State Building held its own in the New York commercial real estate market – even when Lehman’s bankruptcy sent rents tumbling and tenants negotiated leaner terms – helped by the expensive renovations to its Art Deco structure.

Two years ago, the building’s owners embarked on a $500-million project to bring the skyscraper, completed in 1931, to modern environmental standards.

In its filing, the company said it currently plans to invest between $175 million and $215 million of additional capital through the end of 2013, to continue to renovate and reposition its properties.

On a pro forma basis, the company generated revenue of about $156.7 million from the building, for the nine months ended Sept. 30. In total, it earned $71 million, rebounding from lows during the financial crisis.

While large banks tend to be the fuel that drives New York commercial real estate rents, the REIT counts just one mega-bank, Citigroup, among its top five tenants.

The other large tenants are asset manager Legg Mason, insurer Odyssey America Reinsurance, cosmetic company Elizabeth Arden Inc. and financial data provider Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News.

In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs are underwriting the IPO.

A REIT is a real estatelinked company that can avoid paying U.S. corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90 per cent of its taxable income to shareholders.

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filing is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO can be different.

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America has too many big houses — 40 million, to be exact — because consumers are shifting preferences to condos, apartments and small homes, experts told the New Partners for Smart Growth Thursday, holding its 11th annual conference in San Diego through Sunday.

Relying on developers’ surveys, Chris Nelson, who heads the Metropolitan Research Center at the University of Utah, said 43 percent of Americans prefer traditional big, suburban homes but the rest don’t.

“That means we are out of balance in terms of where the market is right now, let alone trending toward the future,” he said.

He estimated that this demand suggests a need for 10 million more attached homes and 30 million more small homes on 4,000-square-foot lots or less. By contrast, demand for large-lot homes is 40 million less than currently available.

“Is it any wonder that suburban homes are plummeting in price, because there is far less demand of those homes than in the past,” he said.

Shyam Kannan, director of the economic development practice at the Robert Charles Lesser & Co. consulting firm, said his company made its money in recent decades in advising builders of suburban master-planned communities. But that emphasis is shifting with consumer patterns.

“Many master-plan developers realize golf courses are dead and the town center is in, and they’re working as hard as they can to deliver it,” he said. “Unfortunately, they’re bumping up against entitlement problems on the public side more often than not… We need to push public policy to keep up with the builders.”

Joe Molinaro, who heads the smart growth program at the National Association of Realtors, shared the results of 2004 and 2011 consumer surveys to explain why preferences are changing.

Factors include a desire for shorter commutes, walkable neighborhoods, economic considerations and, in the case of Generations X and Y, born between 1965 and 2000, they want the non-car mobility they did not get as youngsters.

“Having the freedom not to be tied down to a vehicle all the time is a big plus to that generation,” Molinaro said.

“Smart growth,” loosely defined as nonsprawling developments that minimize distances, maximize public infrastructure investment returns and promote environmental sustainability, has been a buzzword in planning circles since the 1990s.

But with growth in all forms stalled for the last few years, planners, developers and investors are pondering how things will shape up with the inevitable upturn occurs.

“If we are optimistic that the world is not coming to an end and we’re going to get out of this economic trough, it’s a good time to consider, when production does ramp up, how we will be building as a country,” Molinaro said.

The conference at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina on Harbor Island has drawn about 1,350 local, regional and national experts, who are mixing days of seminars with tours of San Diego neighborhoods to see smart growth in action.

“The San Diego region is an innovative pioneer in the smart growth movement,” said Judy Corbett, executive director of the California-based Local Government Commission that is sponsoring the conference.

She said San Diego offers plenty of examples for transit-oriented, compact development; transformed downtown and old neighborhoods; walkable, mixed-use “urban villages: and high-tech, telecommunications and clean-tech businesses.

“San Diego is one of the most livable and sustainable major metropolitan areas in the nation,” she said.

Among the tours was one led by former San Diego City Councilman Scott Peters, who showed off the roundabouts on La Jolla Boulevard in Bird Rock, which were built to calm down traffic without creating traffic jams. Peters, who is now a port commissioner, previously represented the Bird Rock-La Jolla area and is now running for Congress.

Two seminars are focusing on San Diego specifically, the “battle” for planning, as long-term needs clash with short-term city budget constraints; and the evolution locally of smart-growth initiatives, inclusionary housing and the influence of nonprofit organizations.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders had been invited to address the conference but his office said he was unable to attend today’s plenary session.

roger.showley@utsandiego.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: rmshowley; Facebook: SDUTshowley

While listening to the radio one morning, the talk show host posed a question to the listeners; “Which situation is more difficult? Being a stay-at-home mom or being a career mom?”

I had to think long and hard about that question. Then I thought about entrepreneur moms. Do we have a larger workload than career moms in Corporate America? What about entrepreneur moms who work from home? Are they subjected to more stress in trying to grow a business while nurturing a family at the same time?

I decided to survey a handful of impressive entrepreneur moms for their “secret sauce” on how they balance career and family. Since I received such great responses, I’ve decided to break them up into a few posts. To start, here are four fabulous shares (including one from me) that may help bring sanity to the life of an entrepreneurial mom.

GET HELP. ACCEPT HELP. HIRE HELP.

That’s what Ivette Lemons, President of Cadtek Design Studio, says. Her company is WBENC Certified and is a spectacular full-service commercial interior design firm that thrives at “solving the puzzle” in making space function to meet the unique needs of its occupants. Who better to offer advice than a detail-oriented person like Ivette?

As a mother of two, her most important tip is to “get help, accept help, hire help”. She admits that this is something she is constantly working on herself and adds, “Accept help when offered. Whether you have to ask for help or hire help—do it. We all take great pride in being the super entrepreneur mom, doing it all. But at some point we would hit a wall and experience complete burn out, so before that happens, bring people into your life to help. Allow them to help you balance personal life and work, whether it’s hiring someone to clean the house or accepting a friend’s offer to pick up the kids for a play date. Our time is precious!”

BE IN THE MOMENT

Laurette Rondenet-Smith has ten children in her blended family, but now manages five. She is the CEO and President of Edlong Dairy Flavors, a WBENC Certified family owned business that is a leader in supplying superior tasting dairy flavors that improve a consumer’s eating experience.

Laurette shares some insight on her schedule and advice. “People often say ‘I don’t know how you do it…having five kids and running a business’ and ‘you seem so calm’. This really couldn’t be further from the truth. I may appear calm on the outside, but inside, my head is racing, always trying to be one step ahead. I tend to think that if I plan really well, I can cram two lives into one! My mom often says that I have amazingly accomplished to live both her life and my fathers, simultaneously.“

She adds, “For all my best intentions, the planning really is a curse because it stops me from being in the moment. I’m always thinking when I get one more chore done, one more task done, then I can sit and play with the children with a clear head. It is delayed gratification at its finest. But, it never works, because as we all know, it is impossible to ever get it ALL done. And it really hinders being in the moment with all your loved ones when your mind is constantly ten steps ahead. What our children really want from us is our most valuable asset…our energy. I have to constantly remind myself to remain conscious and in the moment and turn my work brain off and soak up the light of being around the people I hold most precious in my life.”

INSTILL FAMILY VALUES AND TRADITIONS

Lori Hilson Cioromski, President of TH Hilson Company, also has a blended family of six children. While managing a busy home life, her company is a successful chemical distributor that provides specialty raw materials and innovative solutions to their clients in a variety of markets.

Lori gave me three great tips, but the one that caught the most attention was the importance of quality time spent with family. Lori states, “Another vital rule I live by is having a family meal together at the dining room table during the week as much as possible. I find creative short cuts with the evening meal and, while it’s not always perfect, the most important thing about our evening meal is that we are together as a family. Since we have a blended family with teenagers and a toddler, it is the only time of the day where we can talk and be together for a few moments without a computer or TV. I hope that when our children have families of their own, they will remember the good times we spent together during our evening meal.”

NO COMMITMENT WEEKENDS

As the co-owner of Desert Rose Design and managing an overly busy toddler, my favorite piece of advice is to make it a habit of scheduling a “no commitment weekend”. My husband, a spirits importer and entrepreneur, has a schedule that is just as demanding as mine. We are a blended family of two children with a large age gap—toddler to teenager. With travel and the demands that our businesses place on us, it’s difficult to maintain schedules and quality time; therefore, we have implemented a “no commitment weekend” rule.

This means that once a month, we pick a weekend and commit to absolutely nothing. No agenda. No work. No running errands. No house chores. No entertaining guests. It could be as simple as gardening together, site seeing the city as if we were tourists, or a movie and pizza night. We just spend the whole weekend with each other doing what we love most, being together.

There is no perfect balance in managing career and family, but if you can find one takeaway from these tips, I’ve done my job with this post.

Feel free to add your best piece of advice for entrepreneur moms to view and share with others.