The granite and silver-tinted-window building that is located at 32 Old Slip may seem just like any another modern-day New York City skyscraper. However, it stands on the site of a former government building, whose sale at a public auction is the most valuable sale of a government building to be sold to a private owner. In 1983 the five-story United States Assay Office, the last public gold refinery, was sold to HRO International Realty Developer for a sum of $27 million. HRO International demolished the Assay Office in 1986, after the gold had been safely removed and taken to another location, of course, and a year later erected the 36-floor, postmodern tower that we see today. But the money making machine did not stop there. In 1995 HRO International resold the building for $135 million to Paramount Group, which in turn sold it in 2007 to Beacon Capital Partners for $751 million, constituting one of the most lucrative sales of an office building in the area.