THE family that owns BB King Blues Club & Grill and the Blue Note New York has cut a deal for a live-music venue in the Meatpacking District.
“It will be called the Highline Ballroom,” said Steve Bensusan, who declined to provide other details, as did his brother Tsion. A Web search, however, revealed that singer Jonatha Brooke is booked for the grand opening on May 1.
The nightclub will take over the 10,000-foot spot formerly occupied by Glo and Powder.
“It’s a terrific domed space with no columns and great sightlines,” said Alex Picken of Picken Real Estate & Nightlife Brokerage who negotiated the deal.
The transaction was actually set back a few months by last year’s state moratorium on new liquor licenses, which has now been lifted.
Western Beef owns 431 W. 16th St. and occupies the first floor. It moved there after its previous location on West 14th Street was sold as a development site.
“The owners were not so concerned with bottom-line dollars,” Picken explained.
“We had offers of over $100,000 more but they felt these would be hassle-free tenants and would bring in fine dining.”
The rent for the 15-year deal starts around $30 a foot.
“The face of Meatpacking is changing and now there are more components to it beyond the fine dining and high fashion,” said Picken.
“This adds appeal to a wider range of age groups.”
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When one of the most popular areas of the city is called the Meatpacking District, should Long Island City come up with a sexier nickname?
This was the dilemma posed to a panel of LIC execs speaking to an Association of Real Estate Women luncheon at the 101 Club yesterday.
That’s when Gary Kesner, executive vice president of Silvercup Studios and chair of the Long Island City Business Development Corp., recalled that the Silvercup West site next to the Queensboro Bridge – where they are now preparing a 6 million-foot mixed-use development – is in an area known as “Blissville.”
It was named after Neziah Bliss, who was an inventor, shipbuilder and a protégé of Robert Fulton.
Should that become the moniker for all of LIC? Stay tuned.
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The Childrenswear Building in the Penn Station area was just sold for $43 million.
The winning buyer was The City Investment Fund and Savanna Investment Management, with losers including Larry Gluck‘s Stellar Management, Joseph Moinian, Joseph Chetrit and the largest area owners, Vornado Realty Trust.
The 172,000-foot building at 127-133 W. 33rd St. sits between Sixth and Seventh avenues, across from the Hotel Pennsylvania and diagonally across Seventh Ave. from Madison Square Garden.
A consortium of limited partners hired Laurence Ross and Adelaide Polsinelli of the Platinum Team at Besen & Associates to sell the building in an off-market transaction.
So how does an off-market deal end up with losers?
“While we were negotiating, word got out and then everyone started negotiating,” said Polsinelli. “The price went up and then Vornado came in at the last minute, but the sellers wanted a 30-day closing. Vornado just doesn’t move quickly and they are probably kicking themselves.”
The original asking price was $30 million.
Stout Pub occupies the retail, while Ralph Lauren just vacated about 40,000 feet leaving some instant upside for the next owners.
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Bulgari is moving its headquarters from two non-contiguous floors at 730 Fifth Ave. – which also happens to be where its retail store is located – to 625 Madison Ave. The retail store is currently undergoing renovation.
The jeweler will occupy 23,933 feet on the fourth floor that was set aside as expansion space for building developer Related Cos.
Related retained the right to sublease the space when the tower was sold by its partner, Moses Ginsburg, to SL Green Realty Trust in 2004.
The building’s asking rents are in the $70s, while this was inked at a much cheaper rent.
Michael Goldman and Kunihiko Otomo of Studley represented Bulgari in the six-year sublease. Barry Zeller, Andrew Ross and David Malawer of Cushman & Wakefield represented Related.
“They have the right to renew for another three years if Related doesn’t need it,” Otomo said. “This is a rare instance of a below-market sublease only because the building owner could not recapture the space.”
