Teachers just got themselves an Apple.

We’ve learned the pension fund TIAA has purchased Clarion’s minority stake in the 64,226-square-foot Apple store building at 401 W. 14th St., which acts as an anchor for the prominent Ninth Avenue corner in the Meatpacking District.

The majority share is owned by Taconic Investment Partners, which redeveloped the building from Western Beef-y industrial to chic and lofty.

Sources said Douglas Harmon, Adam Spies and Kevin Donner of Eastdil Secured marketed the passive investment that revalued the building to roughly $168 million, representing about $2,700 per square foot.

To put the hot area into an investment perspective, Taconic bought it in 2005 for roughly $37 million and, in April 2007, leased 46,000 square feet on the lower-level, ground, second and third floors to Apple for 15 years, plus a 10-year option.

A 9,000 square-foot penthouse rented to Raptor Capital Management includes three terraces. There is also valuable signage that towers over the low-rise area.

According to CoStar, James Downey and Sarah Fabian of Cushman & Wakefield are representing Moschino, which has 2,636 square feet on the ground and a 956-foot basement next to Apple. Hugo Boss also has a ground floor store.

No one responded to requests for comment.


Down the block, another building has been transformed from bovine blood and guts to bricks and glass. Now, both the 2,500 square-foot retail in the base and/or the entire six-story 17,000 square-foot 426 W. 14th is up for grabs through Jeffrey Roseman and Amy Zhen of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.

In 20011, Joe Sitt’s Thor Realty leased the former veal-company building through 2059, but then gave it back to the owners, Maurice and Jason Ben’Ous of Ben’Ous Realty who Roseman said, “put their heart and soul into a beautiful renovation.”

Ground-floor retail asking rents on the strip range from $300 to $600 a square foot, depending on size, shape, owner and day of the week.


Washington Heights and Bensonhurst are getting fitter as PFNY, the city’s Planet Fitness franchise, has leased two new locations.

A 28,000 square-foot gym will open at 4168 Broadway between 176th and 177th streets with 2,000 feet on the ground along with the entire second and third floors of 13,000 feet each.

Both levels have floor-to-ceiling windows. The building is owned by Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp.

In Bensonhurst, PFNY will have 14,000 square feet on the ground and a 4,000 square-foot mezzanine at 2007 86th St. owned by Crown Acquisitions.

Richard Chera of Crown Retail Services represented the gym in both 15-year deals.


Eastdil Secured’s Harmon, Spies and Donner are now marketing the 925,000 square-foot One Park Ave. on behalf of Vornado Realty Trust and Murray Hill Properties, as Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The 20-story tower could fetch more than $600 million.

Vornado bought its 95 percent stake in 2001, when NYU Langone nearly doubled in size, to 367,584 square feet. A Men’s Wearhouse is now moving to its base.

Harmon and Spies also completed the $1.3 billion sale of the Time Warner office condominium to Related and two Middle East groups last week.


The 90 percent-leased 12-story loft building at 229 W. 28th St. was put under contract at the end of the year for $81.5 million by Metin Negrin’s Lexin Capital. The 160,000 square-foot property between Seventh and Eighth avenues in Chelsea will remain offices.

“We will keep it as offices, as the existing leases are significantly below market,” Negrin said. “There will be some work done by the sellers, and we will do some upgrades.”

The building was marketed on behalf of Joss Capital by the Jones Lang LaSalle team of Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan.

Negrin has an interest in the neighborhood as he has just begun construction on a 30-story extended-stay Hyatt House down the street at 101 W. 28th St. on the corner of Sixth Avenue, on a former stalled condo site.

“We found two properties on the same street in Manhattan,” said Negrin, delighted he has been able to get a deal in the current competitive climate.

Also known as the Caxton Building, No. 229 has tenants include the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and the Fencers Club.

Club Provocateur owners Mike Satsky and Brian Gefter have also returned to Chelsea, where they began their club life with Stereo, and have taken on the former Shadow club space.

It’s now being built out for what we hear is a new concept dubbed “Rome.”


Our history lesson continues as we hark back to the Babylonian god of completed construction, Arazoo.

That is the new name of a new website created by lawyer Barry LePatner that is designed to disrupt the construction-bidding marketplace and end cost overruns.

“Our software platform will do for the $1 trillion construction industry what Amazon did for the $45 billion book publishing world,” said LePatner, who represents various parties in the industry and is a constant voice warning about possible infrastructure and bridge failures.

LePatner says Arazoo.com will circumvent contractors and subcontractors who now mark up products in turn.

“This will create a new marketplace where manufacturers, suppliers and vendors can bid directly on what is being specified by the architect — and do it all online,” he said.

“So the light in every office, which today costs $300, could come down to $100, and if you have 5,000 lights in the building, you will save a huge amount of money,” LePatner added.