When executives with SL Green Realty Corp., the largest commercial property owner in New York City, added to the REIT’s coffers in May 2015 and made 11 Madison Ave. in Manhattan the second most expensive U.S. office building ever purchased at a reported $2.6 billion, they might have chosen to celebrate with a meal from famed restaurant Eleven Madison Park, located on the building’s ground floor.

The $225-per-person meal may have seemed like a bargain compared with the $970 per square foot paid for the building (though even that appears to be a discount in the current market). But one can imagine, at those prices, they would hope their New York steaks, much like the city’s property market, were not overheated.

Even further, they might have been concerned whether the restaurant, known for its use of local ingredients, could face stiff competition in a city known as much for its foreign investors as its foreign cuisine.

How did we get here?