Ark Restaurants will open a new upscale, modern restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen with a menu designed by David Waltuck, the former chef and owner of Chanterelle.
The 10,530-square-foot, ground floor restaurant will be located on Tenth Avenue between 37th and 38th Streets, in the base of the new TF Cornerstone 835-unit rental building at 505 W. 37th St.
The restaurant will have 183 square feet of frontage and a 650-square-foot basement. Ark President Michael Weinstein said Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Thom Mayne, whose firm, Morphosis, designed the new Cooper Union building, will be the architect for the restaurant.
“We’re going through a design phase,” said Weinstein. “It will be upscale, modern and very interesting.”
The as yet unnamed restaurant has a target opening of Dec. 1. Fred Klein and Herb Weisberg of KGW Associates represented Ark in the new deal.
Winick Realty Group is representing the building’s retail space along with that in a sister TF Cornerstone rental building with 394 units across the avenue at 455 W. 37th St.
“It’s a phenomenal addition to the neighborhood and will change the dynamics of the neighborhood and will start a domino effect of retailers coming to the area,” said Steven Baker, president of Winick Realty Group, who represented the owners along with colleague Josh Singer.
The asking rent for the retail spaces in both buildings is $40 a foot. Baker said a Duane Reade has already opened and they are “close” to a deal for another retailer to take 9,570 square feet.
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As we pray for those in Japan, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontiéres has renewed and expanded its headquarters lease at 333 Seventh Ave.
The nonprofit humanitarian medical relief organization added 10,340 square feet to its current deal. It will now occupy a total of 32,340 square feet comprised of the entire second and a portion of the third floors for the next 10 years.
Carri Lyon of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant. The 410,334-
square-foot building is owned by Samco Properties and had an asking rent in the $30s a foot. Josh and Adam Smith represented the ownership in-house.
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Private real estate management firm Interventure Advisors has signed a lease for a pre-built suite of 8,698 square feet on part of the 36th floor at 810 Seventh Ave.
The asking rent for comparable space in the building is $65 a foot. Interventure was repped by Gregg Lorberbaum of Centric Real Estate Advisors.
The SL Green Realty Trust ownership was represented by Pete Shimkin, David Falk and Danny Levine of Newmark Knight Frank.
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Since Wells Fargo was bumped from 120 Park by Bloomberg, it has been searching with Ben Lambert from its Eastdil Secured division.
Scouts tell us the tours have included space at 1745 Broadway, the Mobil Building at 150 E. 42nd St. and 1221 Ave. of the Americas.
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Erwin Pearl Jewelry Designer is opening a new-concept store at 300 Madison Ave. on the southwest corner of 42nd Street. The 675-square-foot store with 48 feet of frontage is being designed by Greg Centeno Design & Co. and should open in mid-April.
“This will be the first prototype and is very exciting,” said Sandra Pearl, Erwin’s wife. This will be the jeweler’s fifth store in Manhattan.
One of those is in the World Financial Center, which is also owned by Brookfield Properties, the manager of this building, which houses CIBC and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Erwin Pearl’s creations are among the last jewelry “Made in the USA.” Pearl owns the largest chain factory in the world, in Providence, RI, as well as a jewelry manufacturing facility.
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It seems as if financing buildings is getting easier, with both banks and non-traditional lenders seeking to deploy capital.
Metropole Realty Advisors just closed on a new $150 million fixed-rate loan for 681 Fifth Ave., a boutique office building that has already signed three tenants, including Metropole’s own offices.
Ladder Capital Finance provided a senior loan that is being used to pay off outstanding debt and fund the construction of more pre-built floors in the 17-story tower.
Peter Smith, managing director of Ladder Capital, worked together with Robert Siegel and KT Bren of Metropole Realty to complete the financing.
The trio had previously worked on Metropole’s 2004 purchase of a luxury retail property on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
Additionally, Malkin Strategic Capital provided a $25 million mezzanine loan. A Cushman & Wakefield brokerage team is handling leasing of the tower.
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Shaun Osher’s CORE Group, which focuses on residential sales and leasing and appears on HGTV’s “Selling New York,” is expanding with a new 5,500-square-foot office on the 17th floor of 100-104 Fifth Ave.
CORE repped itself in- house, while Grant Greenspan of the Kaufman Organization represented the ownership, which is a ven ture of the Kaufman Organization and Invesco. The asking rent was $55 a foot.
The Real Deal reports that CORE was just sued for $353,400 by the Brooklyn furniture maker Heptagon Creations for allegedly using digitized images of its distinctive furniture in a presentation that was shown on “Selling New York.” The images allegedly swayed a client to buy a $5.89 million penthouse, so Heptagon is suing for the commission. [email protected]
