If King Kong were around, he'd be an executive at Empire State Realty Trust. The self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) formed in mid-2011 to take over a portfolio of high-profile Manhattan properties from its previous owners, the Malkin family. Its flagship property is, of course, the 102-story Empire State Building, but the trust also owns more than a dozen other buildings in the greater New York area totaling almost 7.7 million sq. ft. of office and retail space. In addition, it plans to build a 340,000-sq.-ft. building at the train station in Stamford, Connecticut. Empire State Realty Trust went public in 2013, raising $929 million.