Equity - Shares and Units (Details)	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2023 USD ($) vote shares	Sep. 30, 2023 USD ($) vote class shares	Dec. 31, 2022 shares	May 16, 2019 shares
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
OP Unit, redemption term for cash (in years)		1 year
OP Unit, exchange ratio to common stock	1	1
LTIP unit, share of stock equivalent (in shares)	1	1
Conversion rate tor LTIP units to OP units	1	1
Dividends on common stock received until performance criteria met for LTIP units (as a percent)	10.00%	10.00%
Dividends on common stock received after performance criteria met for LTIP units (as a percent)	90.00%	90.00%
Dividends on common stock received in periods after performance criteria met for LTIP units (as a percent)	100.00%	100.00%
OP units owned by the Company and other partners (in shares)	108,617,764	108,617,764
Number of classes | class		2
Exchange ratio	0.020	0.020
Stock repurchase authorized amount | $	$ 500,000,000	$ 500,000,000
Purchases of equity securities (in shares)	0
Empire state realty OP | Empire state realty trust
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
OP units owned by the Company (as a percent)		59.90%
Empire state realty OP | Other partners, company directors, members of senior management and other employees
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
OP units not owned by other partner (as a percent)		40.10%
Class A Common Stock
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Common stock outstanding (in shares)	161,346,829	161,346,829
Common stock outstanding (in shares)	161,347,000	161,347,000	160,139,000
Class B Common Stock
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Common stock outstanding (in shares)	986,884	986,884	990,000
Number of voting rights (in shares) | vote	50	50
2019 Plan
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Number of shares authorized under the plan (in shares)	11,000,000	11,000,000		11,000,000