Around 1996, Joseph Neumann and Credit Suisse First Boston acquired CitySpire for $38 million. The building had been offered for $50 million, but Neumann and First Boston were able to buy the building for less after beating a competing bid from Henry Elghanayan.[127] At the time, the building owed $1.9 million in taxes to the city government.[128] The office owners (composed of First Boston and external investors), along with the residential condo owners, bore the cost of the pedestrian arcade's $1 million renovation.[3] CitySpire's pedestrian arcade was finally completed in late 1997. Upon the arcade's completion, David W. Dunlap wrote for The New York Times that it had taken seven years between the authorization of the first transcontinental railroad and the laying of its golden spike, but it had taken twelve years between the arcade's approval and its opening.[4][38] The arcade's opening completed the set of walkways from 51st to 57th Street.[38] In addition, some of the office space was converted into "prebuilt" offices.[129]