Malkin Holdings LLC, supervisor of the company that holds the title to the tower, has “embarked on a course of action” that could result in it becoming part of a new REIT, Empire State Building Associates LLC said in a regulatory filing today. Documents may be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in about three months, according to the filing.

A public offering would give investors the opportunity to own a piece of one of New York’s most famous buildings as the city’s real estate values rebound after the recession. Midtown Manhattan office property prices have gained 87 percent since a mid-2009 trough, according to Green Street Advisors Inc., a REIT research firm in Newport Beach, California.

Malkin Holdings supervises property-owning partnerships led by Peter Malkin and his son Anthony Malkin. It owns the 2.9 million-square-foot (269,000-square-meter) Empire State Building in conjunction with the estate of Leona Helmsely.

Partnerships including the Malkins control more than 10 million square feet of office properties in Manhattan, New York’s Westchester County and Fairfield County in Connecticut.

Brandy Bergman, a spokeswoman for Malkin Holdings, declined to comment beyond the filing.