Ziel Feldman has now revealed two designs he is toying with for the upcoming 76 11th Ave. between 17th and 18th streets.

Speaking to the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association Tuesday in Midtown, he said the address could change also.

It is, of course, contingent on branding and culturally superstitious buyers. The Chinese “love eights,” Feldman noted, while 18 is “Chai” and luck for Jewish folks. (Or he could go the patriotic route with 17/76, but that’s just me.)

Feldman, head of HFZ Capital, is in contract to close in April on his purchase of the full block — a former parking lot — from Edison Properties. The possibly record land price, which Feldman declined to discuss, has been previously reported to be $600 million to $700 million and comes with the right to develop more than 760,000 square feet of residential, retail and hotel space.

The fiscally cautious Feldman, who said “Brooklyn scares us” with land pricing at $400 a foot and lower sales prices, was willing however, to take an even higher-stakes gamble with a dramatic project and higher costs — but that would garner higher sales prices.

That’s because it’s all about location — sandwiched between the High Line and Hudson River, both of which border the site to the east and west respectively (along with Chelsea Piers), while to the north is the iceberg-like low-rise IAC building.

A drone-created video shows long-range views as the prospective project rises to 38 stories and 400 feet — it would be a lost trifle in Midtown.

Feldman has very rough preliminary proposals in-hand for a two-building development from both Rem Koolhaas and Bjarke Ingels (founder of firm BIG), whose pyramid design for Durst at 12th Avenue and West 57th Street is currently getting some windows.

No one has been hired, and nothing is inked or set in brick for the full block site. Both architects have suggested somewhat triangular structures that won’t block views.

BIG’s is a low building for a hotel and retail and a higher one with more bulk at the top for the tower closest to the water. The project will include a small park while a porte cochere could run between the buildings.

“We have two buildings and need to make sure they don’t face each other,” Feldman added, drawing laughs when he referenced the nearby Standard Hotel as being “built for voyeurism and for having sex in the windows” — and not what he wanted for his project.

He will also be targeting smaller units as he says condominium buyers are worried more about the total costs than the square footage.

As for Mayor de Blasio’s affordable housing push, Feldman said that density and height are “music to my ears,” but “if I have to have more affordable, it has to pencil out.”



Adidas is running into Brooklyn.

The German sportswear company will soon unleash a 4,500- square-foot Brooklyn flagship at 452 Fulton St.
The property is in the center of the borough’s reinvented downtown shopping and residential area.

Jeremy Ezra of RKF represented Adidas while the building owner, Crown Acquisitions, was represented in-house and had an asking rent of $350 per square foot — a new high for Brooklyn street retail.

Adidas has already made its mark in the city at its 610 Broadway flagship at Houston Street at the crossroads of Noho and Soho.

The parties did not return requests for comment.


The world-renowned John Barrett Salon is taking over the Midtown mansion owned by one of the world’s richest men, where the world’s most beautiful woman once lived.

The John Barrett Salon will maintain a presence in Bergdorf Goodman but we’ve now learned it has leased the entire 16,000- square-foot mansion at 10 W. 56th St., steps off Fifth Ave.

Owned by multibillionaire Carlos Slim , who purchased it in 2011 for $15.5 million, the mansion designed by Warren and Wetmore was home to Elizabeth Taylor and third husband Michael Todd during their brief marriage before he died in a plane crash in 1958.

More recently, it has been home to a series of pop-up shops. It is on a block that boasts Henri Bendel, Norma Kamali, and the Peninsula and Chambers hotels.

Roxana Girand of MHP Real Estate represented the ownership. Annette M. Healey and Alden Alexander of CBRE represented John Barrett in its lease. The rent will be $1.5 million per year.

According to Jim Hedges, CEO of John Barrett, “This is a beautiful Beaux Arts limestone mansion that will become the most beautiful luxury salon in the country.”

The 9,000-square-foot above-grade interior will include 80 chairs for stylists, make-up artists and many private treatment rooms. In keeping with the block, there will also be a 3,500-square-foot retail area. The six-story interior includes a ballroom and formal garden terrace.

Daniel Romualdez will design the space, just as he is doing for John Barrett’s 54 Bond St. location, which will open this spring, and for the upcoming World Trade Center space — both of which we first revealed.


Estee Lauder’s Aramis and Designer Fragrance Division and its digital workers are expanding in Chelsea by 100,000 square feet and will soon occupy 166,000 square feet at the connected 28-40 W. 23rd St., sources said.

Strollers will recognize the white cast-iron building by its ground floor retailer, Home Depot.

But the Chelsea/Flatiron area building also houses tech companies like BuzzFeed, while its new space on Park Ave. South is being built out, as well as AppNexus.

Aramis will expand from the current spot on the 3rd floor into the 6th through 9th floors, sources said. The asking rents listed on real estate information provider CoStar had been in the $69 to $75 range, but the availability was deleted.

Sacha Zarba and Greg Tosko of CBRE represented Estee Lauder while Andy Roos of Colliers International represented the ownership.

The parties did not return requests for comment.