A plan to roll the Empire State Building into a publicly traded company reached a critical threshold of investor approval on Wednesday, clearing the way for the public to own a piece of the landmark.

After more than a year of contentious relations between Malkin Holdings, which has spearheaded the plan, and a small group of investors, holders of more than 80 percent of the units of ownership in the 102-story skyscraper in New York's midtown Manhattan approved the plan to fold the skyscraper into a newly created real estate investment trust called Empire State Realty Trust Inc. The approval was disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.