In April 1997, the Chrysler building is placed on the market, after the passing of owner Jack Kent Cooke and an incomplete financial restructuring of the well-known architectural icon. Tishman Speyer Properties is one of eight bidders on the short list of contenders intensively interested in purchasing the asset from the bank consortium that holds the underlying mortgage note. Steve Wechsler, a senior managing director and partner at Tishman Speyer, must analyze the overall economics of a feasible transaction and develop an acquisition strategy that will give his firm a competitive advantage in the auction.