How'd you like to own a piece of the Empire State Building? The 102-story skyscraper may be open to investors if one family gets its way.

The Malkin family, which controls the property, has filed plans with regulators for a publicly traded company that includes the building, The New York Times reports.

The filing (which you can see here) doesn't say a whole lot. It refers to a company called Empire State Building Associates, and says that the Malkin family is working to include the company in a new real estate investment trust, or REIT.

The REIT would be a public company, which means we'll eventually see some registration papers with more financial details. The filing says the company will provide more documents in about three months.

The REIT would include two other buildings controlled by Anthony Malkin and his father, Peter Malkin, the Times reports. Those would be a 55-story tower across the street from Grand Central Terminal and a 26-story building at 250 West 57th Street in New York. Goldman Sachs (GS) is expected to underwrite the deal, the Times adds.

It's a good time for a REIT to go public. Investors searching for decent returns have shoveled some $6 billion into publicly traded REITs this year, Smart Money reports, up 18% from 2010 and 400% from 2009.

Unlike the tumultuous residential sector, commercial real estate values have been relatively stable with yields investors can appreciate. The Glimcher Realty Trust (GRT), for example, has a dividend yield of 5.1%. LTC Properties (LTC), a healthcare REIT, has a dividend yield of around 6.3%.