THE appetite for large retail leases is alive and well, as several big blocks of space thrown into the market as a result of bankruptcies are getting snapped up.
In the latest deal, furniture retailer Raymour & Flanigan signed to open a 33,000-square-foot store in the Lincoln Square area.
The space, located at 1961 Broadway at the corner of West 66th Street, will comprise a portion of the former Tower Records that was most recently rented, renovated and then vacated by the now-defunct Circuit City.
The real estate suits at R&F patiently waited out the bankruptcy court proceedings because Circuit City’s 49,000-foot-lease was signed just a couple of years ago, and thus at a higher rent then they were now able to negotiate with building owners at Millennium Partners, represented by Gene Spiegelman of Cushman & Wakefield.
The asking rent for the 10-year deal was $4 million — effectively $100 a foot for the second-story space and $300 a foot for the ground entrance.
R&F will occupy 5,000 feet at the W. 66th St. corner of the building at Broadway. Escalators and elevators go up to 25,000 feet on the second floor, which completely fronts Broadway with huge glass windows all the way around to West 67th Street.
Circuit City invested some $10 million in refurbishing the space, Spiegelman said.
The retail at 1961 Broadway is in the base of a 32-story mixed-use building that includes The Phillips Club — a time-share hotel — and 200 condos. Other retailers include Pottery Barn and Zara, which previously took 16,000 feet of Tower Records. The Gourmet Garage opened in July in space vacated in May by Balducci’s.
Last month, Best Buy leased a former 46,000-foot Circuit City store in Union Square, with Nordstrom Rack taking over 32,136 feet of the adjacent Virgin Megastore.
Previously, Best Buy bought a 31,000-foot Brooklyn lease and PC Richards took over a 31,000-foot shop in College Point. And, as Post colleague Steve Cuozzo reported yesterday, Old Navy renewed its 64,000 foot lease in Chelsea.
“This isn’t one deal done in a vacuum,” said Spiegelman of his R&F lease, “but a trend to absorb the best-positioned locations. We have bottomed out in this marketplace.”
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Youngwoo & Associates has apparently raised the capital to close on the purchase of troubled insurer AIG’s headquarters building at 72 Wall/70 pine St. in lower Manhattan.
Korean investors were approached both for equity and to take over the purchase.
Sources tell us that Youngwoo’s partner, Kumho Investment Bank, provided the nearly $27 million deposit but was not going to provide a mortgage to complete the approximately $135 million deal at the end of the summer.
Calls to Youngwoo and the CB Richard Ellis marketing brokers were not returned.
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Not everyone is happy with their prospective purchases.
As of yesterday, 339 “escrow disputes” were clocked into the New York State Attorney General’s office, up from 168 for all of last year and 57 for 2007.
No information was available regarding resolution of the disputes.
Deposits on condo and co-op units are held in escrow, and buyers who don’t like tanking values are trying every means they can to get out of deals and get back their deposits.
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The Landmarks Commission voted yesterday to hold a public hearing on the possible landmarking of the green- glass Springs Mills building at 104 W. 40th St.
It was designed by Harrison & Abramovitz, which also worked on the United Nations and Lincoln Center.
The Commission also mentions its neighboring vacant eyesore, the Deering Milliken Co. Building at 1045 Sixth Ave., in the same sentence: “Together, the buildings create a mid- century architectural ensemble of subtle counterpoints,” says a statement that sends Big Brother shivers through me own timbers.
Why should a devel oper hire any possible up-and- coming archi tect if there is a chance that his successors would want to redevelop the parcel with a more useful, rentable and modern structure but be stymied because the original architect is later deemed “important?”
This city never sleeps but it should also not stagnate. There’s been enough landmarking already. [email protected]
