VICTORIA’S Secret has just inked a deal worth $100 million for a 24,000 foot duplex spread in SoHo at 591-593 Broadway.
But the 15-year lease is for a space that doesn’t yet exist. That’s because Aurora Capital, which controls the retail in the building, is moving a “mountain,” a lounge and a lobby to build a 60 foot swath of glass frontage to accommodate the sexy Angels.
The deal was made possible by getting current tenant Eastern Mountain Sports, represented by Bruce Katz of Katz & Associates, to move to 18,000 feet in Thor Equities’ 530 Broadway.
Additionally, area staple, the Lounge, will simply be shuttered. And the building entrance between the two storefronts is being shuffled off Broadway to Mercer St. where the new lobby will have a larger, high-speed elevator.
Aurora Capital, which is controlled by Bobby Cayre, Alex Adjmi and Jared Epstein, also owns 600 Broadway, where Hollister’s flagship has taken the retail and 568 Broadway, which has Armani A/X, Forever 21 and others.
Richard Hodos of CB Richard Ellis represented the Limited’s Victoria’s Secret in the deal for a 12,000 foot ground and ditto in the basement. Ground floor spaces on that block run from $400 to $600 a foot. No one returned calls for comment but for the Limited which had none anyway.
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Lehman Brothers new owner, Barclay’s, has just gobbled up 60,000 feet in Queens on the 10th to 12th floors of the One MetLife Plaza tower. The deal is a sublease from MetLife in the building owned by Brause Realty.
Josh Kurlioff and Paul Glickman of Cushman & Wakefield along with the Jones Lang LaSalle team of Lloyd Desatnick and Peter Riguardi represented MetLife which got between $38 for the first few years and $42 for the rest of the term. A CB Richard Ellis team represents Bar clay’s and no one would comment on the deal.
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Word on the street is that the Queen of the Sky scrapers, Darcy Stacom of CB Richard Ellis has advised bidders for the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel that the estate is not in a rush to sell.
“They have pulled back and are monitoring the market because they know everyone will have a hard time chasing down partners and lenders in this environment,” snitched one source.
Meanwhile, the hotel – which was originally thought to sell for as much as $800 million but was most recently fetching bids in the $600 million range – is booking overnight stays through the end of next year. Some bidders were considering condos but are wary of the low ceilings while others want to maintain it as a hotel.
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A Cushman & Wakefield report has found commercial velocity slowing, vacancy rates increasing and rents falling – and the expectation is for even further deterioration in the market.
Joseph Harbert of C&W said vacancy rates could go from the current overall 7.4 percent to the 9 and 10 percent range by the beginning of the next quarter. [email protected]
