A non-sexy, and profitable, I.P.O.

Normally when we think about initial public offerings (I.P.O.s), we think about newer firms that are engaging in new technologies - Facebook being a wonderful example.

But you can have an I.P.O. for something as boring as real estate.

Through the offering, shareholders will be able to own a piece of 12 office buildings in New York and Connecticut that together comprise 7.7 million square feet of rentable office space.

But the crown jewel of the portfolio is clearly the 102-story Empire State Building.

Yup, the Empire State Building, which has been around for almost a century. And unless you're a giant ape, you can purchase a piece of the building.

And what's more, this business actually makes money:

The company disclosed in its prospectus that the skyscraper generated $156.7 million in revenue for the nine months ended Sept. 30. Overall, Empire State Realty earned $71 million in net income on a pro forma basis for the first nine months of 2011 on revenue of $382.2 million.

Granted, it's not trendy - but making actual money usually isn't.