Discount clothing chain TJ Maxx yesterday inked a deal to open a store at 250 W. 57th Street, where it will set the tone for a new fashion corridor.
The retailer signed a lease with the Malkin family’s W&H Properties for 28,000 square feet at the prominent building that takes up the entire blockfront on the south side of West 57th between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. This is TJ Maxx’s third Manhattan location.
TJ Maxx will move into the 2,600 square-foot ground floor, the entire second floor of 20,000 square feet and a 5,000 square-foot portion of the lower level at the southwest corner of West 57th and Eighth Avenue. The asking rent for the ground was $350 a foot.
To accomplish the deal, W&H had to relocate several tenants along with the building office, and the Chase branch bank bought out its lease and moved across the street. The deal also involved a rezoning to allow loading docks and big box retail, both of which were accomplished last year.
“They are a great retailer and we are delighted to have them,” said Fred Posniak of W&H. “This also adds tremendous value to the rest of the retail because by the time TJ opens for the holiday season, other retail will become available on our 57th Street side where The Gap signed a short-term renewal for less space.”
Peter Ripka of Ripco Real Estate brought the retailer to the building, while Joanne Podell and Matt Siegel of Cushman & Wakefield represented W&H.
Rival clothing chain Kohl’s had been considering a store across the street at Joseph Moinian ‘s newly re-skinned 3 Columbus, but that deal is now kaput, sources said.
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Macklowe Properties has filed a new appraisal in its fight to keep 510 Madison Ave.
According to court records, the appraisal by Robert Von Ancken of Grubb & Ellis calculated the vacant, brand new tower to be worth $287 million on March 16, 2010, and $398 million “upon stabilized occupancy” by March 2013.
SL Green Realty Corp., which bought the loan on the building, is trying to foreclose based on an appraisal by Cushman & Wakefield earlier this year that valued the building at $160 million — putting it in default of certain mortgage covenants.
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The Children’s Museum of Manhattan is intensifying its search for a second site of around 100,000 square feet.
The search, headed by Paul Wolf of Denham Wolf, is concentrating on the West Side and in tourist areas, he confirmed.
“Developers love them as they are a big draw with tourists,” Denham said.
Already, the museum was left in the dust when both Durst’s plans for Pier 57 and Brookfield’s proposal for the West Side railyards project each was beaten out by rival developers.
The museum expects to keep its current 38,000 square-foot location on the Upper West Side near the Museum of Natural History.
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When it rains, the city hopes it will pour money.
A new proposal by the Water Board would rake in a mere $500,000 per year by charging parking lot operators an annual fee of 5 cents per square foot for rainwater that falls on the asphalt. No kidding.
Currently, that rainwater washes into the sewer system, where it goes directly to overtaxed sewage-treatment facilities.
Parking lots that have bathrooms, however, won’t have to pay this tab because they are already charged water and sewer fees, a Water Board official said.
Other parking operators can avoid it by instituting “Stormwater Best Management Practices,” outlined by the Department of Buildings.
What’s next? Some cheeky sources are imagining a rainwater fee for vehicles entering the city on rainy days and a special tax on umbrellas because they channel water into the sewer system by keeping rain from falling on people.
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As expected, Youngwoo & Associates just placed the lower half of the former AIG tower at 70 Pine St. on the market for office leases.
Andrew Peretz, John Peters and Marc Packman of Cushman & Wakefield won the hotly contested mandate. They declined to comment.
CoStar data shows a total of 513,000 square feet, consisting of the entire second through 16th floors, with asking rents from $33 to $35 a square foot.
The floors “wedding cake” upward from 38,175 square feet to 26,520 square feet each. Sources said AIG executives will be slowly moving out of the building throughout the rest of the year.
“The building is an exquisite Art Deco masterpiece and has been well maintained,” said one source who toured the space. Tenants from the insurance, publishing, financial, cultural and entertainment industries from both Midtown and downtown are among those that have already investigated spaces.
The rest of the 1 million square-foot, 66-story tower will become residential and hotel.
Meanwhile, the smaller and newer companion building at 72 Wall St. is being re-shopped by Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan of CB Richard Ellis as owner Young Woo wants to sign a long- term net lease for its 324,969 square feet with a user or an operator.
The CBRE duo did not return calls for comment.
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Stacom and Shanahan are also the talk of the town as they signed up SL Green Realty Corp. to buy the Hines family’s 600 Lexington Ave.
Crain’s New York Business reported the price at $180 million, or $700 a foot. That equates to a cap rate of 4 percent, which puts the building back toward 2006-2007 pricing levels, which is understandable because of the dearth of offerings, but a situation that’s also scaring city lenders.
The building is on a ground lease above a US Post Office branch, so it wasn’t appealing to many foreign buyers.
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Enhanced Capital Partners signed an 11-year lease at 601 Lexington Ave., which used to be known as Citicorp Center.
The 15,469 square- foot deal was for part of the 55th floor and had an asking rent of $93 a foot.
The financial firm was repre sented by Ben Friedland, Brad Needleman and Sam Seiler of CB Richard Ellis, while owner Boston Properties was repped by the Jones Lang LaSalle team of Frank Doyle, David Kleiner and Cynthia Wasserberger.
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Law firm Purrington Moody Weil, which has a special focus on the alternative investment fund industry, is heading for the Meatpacking District.
The firm signed a 10-year lease to relocate its offices to 7,968 square feet on the fourth floor of 414 W. 14th St. The asking rent was $70 a foot. They are now situated nearby at 320 W. 13th St. and in Greensboro, SC.
Matthew Bergey of CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant, while John Brod and Laura Pomerantz of PBS Real Estate represented the owner, which has already leased part of the retail space to Levi’s.
The owner is a partnership between The Carlyle Group and Sitt Asset Management.
