ONE of the city’s hot test spots may be up for grabs for a cool $40 million.
Legendary mammary mecca Scores West has been entertaining offers since it became apparent earlier this month that its liquor license would be pulled.
Alex Picken, a restaurant and nightclub real estate broker, told us he’s been showing the space.
“I have arranged for inspections of the property for different investor groups that are focused on the real estate,” said Picken.
No competing clubs need apply as the owners are not eager to sell to another adult venue.
On the other hand, Scores’ cabaret license adds value to the deal as no other rival can open within 500 feet of the current club.
If they don’t use it themselves or want to tear down the building, the next owners could “sell” the early termination of the license so it can be used nearby in a better-suited structure.
Scores’ 200 foot-by-50 foot building at 536 W. 28th St. goes through the block to West 27th Street and its special zoning district allows for it to be developed to more than 50,000 feet.
That’s because it could tap into the High Line bonus whereby more air rights can be transferred from elsewhere in the district.
Through a spokesperson, Scores owner Richie Goldring advised, “While it’s not actively being marketed, everything is available at the right price.”
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Location and pricing have caused Dubai’s Nakheel to enter into a contract to sell the Knickerbocker Hotel and the adjacent 42nd Street development site.
The off-market deal was arranged by Jeffrey Davis of Jones Lang LaSalle.
Nakheel Hotels’ CEO Joe Sita told us that they had bought the office building at 6 Times Square with plans to convert it back to the Knickerbocker prior to their purchases of the W Hotel at Union Square and the Mandarin Oriental at the Time Warner Center.
“When we looked at the weighting of hotel product we really didn’t need another hotel of that standard,” Sita said.
Architects Brennan Beer Gorman, which also worked on the St. Regis, had created what Sita called “outstanding” conversion plans for the hotel and the site next door that the unidentified buyer, which is in its due diligence period, may decide to use.
Meanwhile, Nakheel (which now encompasses the former Istithmar division) is continuing many projects in Dubai as well as renovation work on its newest US purchases, the Fontainebleau in Miami and the conversion of the Hotel Washington to a W.
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The architect of Amsterdam’s infamous Mobius House is wrapping a new 20-story city condo with undulating ribbon-like façade detailing.
The developers, David Kislin and Leo Tsimmer of Sleepy Hudson, hired Ben van Berkel, co-founder of UNStudio, Amsterdam to design 5 Franklin Place in TriBeCa, right down the street from the Woolworth Building.
Its 55 units will be pitched by Corcoran Sunshine Marketing with pricing set between $2 million and $16 million.
Van Berkel’s interiors have lighter palettes on the darker, lower loft residences, warmer tones for the middle city residences and richer tones for three, light filled sky residences which boast fireplaces and a “cylindrical glass elevator wrapped by a curved, cantilevered floating staircase.”
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Designer Victoria Hagen found her own Oval Office with a fireplace and full-frontal views of Central Park on the 19th floor of the landmarked 1790 Broadway after outgrowing her “disjointed” duplex penthouse at 654 Madison Ave.
Hagen, whose fabrics and furniture can be found in Target as well as in the homes of folks like Ron Perelman, wanted the fab view for clients who often sit for hours going through samples.
The new 11,500-foot, 10-year deal had an asking rent of $75 a foot but broker Corey Abdo and colleague Brandon Price of Winoker Realty wrangled for six months with the owner’s broker, Jeff Rosenblatt, and then with Grubb & Ellis to get to “yes.”
Rosenblatt has since moved over to Swig Equities and Hagen will move in June.
