THE Cushman & Wake field capital-markets team has started marketing the 140,000-square foot commercial/retail condo at 15 E. 26th St. They are hoping to reach $250 a foot for a total of around $35 million.
“This Old House” star Bob Vila owns the penthouse and is among those who have closed on units on floors 9 through 20 — marketed as 15 Madison Square — for residential living.
For sale are the lower eight commercial floors, with a separate lobby.
Tenants now include Bertelsmann, El Al Airlines and engineering firms at older rents in the $30s a foot.
According to data from CoStar, the available third floor of 19,500 feet has an asking rent of $48 a foot through Walter & Samuels, the sponsor and seller.
The San Domenico restaurant has shuttered on Central Park South and has begun its new build-out on the ground floor facing Madison Square Park.
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Market-savvy retailers are pouncing on hot locations where good foot traffic continues and rents have slipped.
Shoe Woo, the moniker for Jones Apparel Group’s gaggle of footwear brands, has leased a 5,100-foot, multi-level flagship across from Bloomingdale’s.
The space at Charles Cohen‘s International Plaza has 30 feet of frontage at 750 Lexington Ave. and sits between Zara’s and Levi’s.
Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Faith Hope Consolo and Joseph Aquino represented both sides of the transaction, which had an asking rent of $750 a foot.
According to Consolo, the featured brands include Anne Klein, Sam & Libby, Bandolino, Joan & David, Circa, Enzo Angiolini, Boutique 9 and Nine West.
Meanwhile, Paul Berkman at Newmark Knight Frank completed two deals with international tenants across from each other in SoHo and is searching along Fifth Avenue between 49th and 57th streets for space for both of those clients plus a third.
Australia’s Billabong is hopping into 597 Broadway, which is the newly vacated half of Kenneth Cole’s storefront. Kenneth Cole replaced a brick wall so Billabong could take possession on May 1 of 2,400 feet on the ground and 2,000 on a lower level. The asking rent was just shy of $400 a foot and Richard Benenson from Benenson Real Estate, repped the owners.
Across the street, Desigual has locked in 5,100 feet on three levels at 594 Broadway for its colorful, casual men’s and women’s creations.
Berkman and colleague Davie Berke worked for the tenant, while Berkman worked in-house along with Donna Vogel for the Jeff Gural/Newmark owners. The asking rent was also just under $400 a foot.
Berkman is also representing UK money exchangers, The Change Group, which has two outlets in Times Square and is looking for another shop near Rockefeller Center.
“They are very, very bullish on the market,” says Berkman of his tenant trio. “They are getting fair deals and they bring new energy and new products to the market.”
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Citigroup has renewed its 30,000-foot private-banking floor at 666 Fifth Ave. for the next five years to make the floor co-terminus with its remaining 290,000 feet.
The bank repped itself, while Tishman Speyer worked for owner Jared Kushner at Kushner Cos.
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Cadim has scheduled the auction of its senior mezzanine mortgage on 1330 Avenue of the Americas for next Wednesday, which we note in passing is owner Billy Macklowe‘s birthday.
Who else would tell you this stuff?
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HSBC’s decision to consider selling offices it owns to raise cash should come as no surprise. We were surprised, however, to learn from our sources that it won’t even provide a mortgage to the eventual buyer of 452 Fifth Ave. That could set up a sticky scenario if a buyer defaults and a competing bank forecloses. The eventual deal will revolve around what the bank agrees to pay for rent to the buyer/investor, who is really counting on HSBC’s credit and a predictable coupon yield on its investment. Jones Lang LaSalle will be handling the New York sale while CB Richard Ellis is handling those in London and Paris.
Recall that just last year the London-based bank tried to sell the 500,000-foot building overlooking Bryant Park and move downtown into 300,000 feet at Sil verstein Properties’ new 7 WTC.
But when offers came in well below the $600 million asking price, they balked and stayed put. They’ll be kicking themselves now that the market is nearly half of that, but then again, rents have also dropped. [email protected]
