The Plaza’s condo board wants to dump some of the glass on the penthouse roof and replace it with copper and tile.
According to the application filed with the Landmarks Commission — which needs to approve any changes — the material swap would affect three penthouse units in the main penthouse structure and also lower the mansard roof.
This would affect the unit that casino baron Steve Wynn bought this month for $23 million. That duplex unit is the subject of a lawsuit by a Russian contract holder who wiggled out of the unit, claiming the ceiling and windows were not as tall or as expansive as expected.
The Landmarks panel proposal would also change the windows on the vertical wall of the glass addition — presumably to make them more “user” friendly.
Calls to Plaza managers and others affected weren’t returned for the last week, while the Landmarks application is being held over until a September meeting.
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As we first flagged for you in January, the National Football League has now crossed the goal line at Rudin Management’s 345 Park Ave.
The NFL is currently huddled in 205,000 square feet at 280 Park Ave., but a search led by Franklin Speyer at Cushman & Wakefield led them up the street to a block of 150,000 square feet on the fifth through seventh floors, plus 30,000 square feet below-grade administrative space.
The asking rent for the prime floors was $70 a square foot with the underground about half of that.
“We have over 300,000 square feet of lower-level office space,” noted William Rudin, who has season tickets to the Jets.
Speyer and C&W colleague Lou D’Avanzo teamed with Peter Hennessy and Daoud Awad of Jones Lang LaSalle to represent the League effort. Tom Keating of Rudin Management Co. represented the Rudins in-house.
The NFL will relocate for the 2011-12 season.
Hennessy, meanwhile, may score twice on the action. He’s leading a search for Guggenheim Partners, which is now examining portions of both the NFL and Deutsche Bank. A new deal would move them from nearly 80,000 square feet at 135 E. 57th St.
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While we’re talking about landmarked penthouses, JPMorgan’s former residence on the 31st floor of the pyramid-topped 14 Wall St. was just rented to the FDM Group.
The 6,709-square-foot space had a special asking rent of $50 a square foot as it has outdoor terraces and fantastic views over the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall. Much of the original historical detail is still there, including decorative fireplaces and paneling evoking the monied world of the old boys club.
The tenant, an international IT services provider, was represented by UGL Equis team of Christopher Sterling and Christian Helgesen.
A CB Richard Ellis team, including Brad Gerla, Howard Fiddle, Jonathan Cope and Evan Haskell, represented owners Capstone Equities, which was founded by Josh Zamir and Daniel Ghadamian.
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Nearby, 2 Rector Pl. finally has its financial act together after being thrown into disarray when Lehman Brothers went belly-up and the New York State Dept. of Transportation exercised an early termination clause — leaving five of its 18,000-square-foot floors vacant.
Then, in another fiscal whammy, a second tenant bankruptcy put yet another floor out of commission.
Now, owner Larry Gluck, founding partner of Stellar Management, says he and “B” note holder, Savanna Partners, have completed a deal to place funds in escrow towards re-tenanting the building and funding new interest reserves.
Gluck would not confirm the number but other sources pegged it around $10 million. The signed agreement recasts the mortgage and essentially takes the building off the special servicing rolls.
Ryan Jackson, vice president of Stellar, handled the transaction. Because of its position across from Trinity Church and the Battery Tunnel, the “U”-shaped building gets great views of the harbor, Jackson said, even from low floors. Mitchell Konsker is heading a Cushman & Wakefield team with Frank Cento to bring the 430,000-square-foot building back to full occupancy.
Pre-builts will be from 4,000- to 7,000-square-foot units with an asking rent in the low to mid-$30s a square foot. To make things easy, an architect is also ready to help out the tenants, Konsker said.
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Pampas Brazilian Steakhouse & Grille, which already has an outpost at the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood Casino & Resort, is coming to 72 Madison. The location previously housed the Olana restaurant and is just north of Madison Square Park near New York Life and the state’s Appellate Court.
The 7,500-square-foot, 15-year deal had an asking rent of $400,000 a year. James Rainey of HRM Commercial brought in the tenant while the owner was represented in-house by the Moinian Group’s Robin M. Kelz.
