Foot Locker is sticking to its prime Herald Square location despite rents that have escalated fast and furiously upwards from the original Woolworth store’s five-and-dime deal made more than 30 years ago.
The flagship store will downsize, however, keeping a nevertheless hefty 34,200 square feet on a portion of the ground floor and the entire second floor of 112 W. 34th St., even as it upscales to an asking rent $1,200 per square foot on the first floor and $250 per square foot on the second floor.
Rob Martin of JLL represented Foot Locker.
Of course, sneaker prices have also escalated into bigger bucks at the cash registers along with high-tech materials and styling. Since the store is also opposite Macy’s, there is no end to the foot traffic.
Fred C. Posniak of the building owners, Empire State Realty Trust, along with Joanne Podell and Ian Lerner of Cushman & Wakefield represented the property, which as we first reported, has also signed Sephora for some of the space that Foot Locker will give up. Another 35,866 square feet on the ground and lower level is still up for grabs.
A comparison of Brooklyn to Kowloon that resulted in a Chinese investment; two leasing transactions that solidified the future of a Madison Square Park tower; and a series of transactions that answered the prayers of a congregation took home the city’s top real estate awards last night.
The winners of the Real Estate Board of New York’s Ingenious Deals of the Year were revealed and the awards were presented at a cocktail party at the 101 Club to three teams for deals that were completed in 2014.
William Shanahan, Darcy Stacom and Paul Leibowitz of CBRE won the first-place Henry Hart Rice Award for bringing in the Chinese-based Greenland as a 70 percent investment partner with Forest City Ratner in the newly renamed Pacific Yards — the former Atlantic Yards project. The team had to explain Brooklyn, which they did by a comparison to Kowloon. It structured the transaction with a board of directors and arranged a meeting between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Greenland’s chairman.
Howard Fiddle and Brad Gerla of CBRE were awarded the second-place Robert T. Lawrence Award for “A ‘Two-State Solution’ to 11 Madison: Everyone Wins.” The deal restructured and downsized Credit Suisse, thus enabling Sony to lease another chunk of the property overlooking Madison Square Park.
The Savills Studley team of Ira Schuman and David Carlos received the third-place Edward S. Gordon Award for their biblical tales of “Divine Intervention or Deal: The Story of the Sale, Repurchase, Rebuilding and Temporary Home for Congregation Habonim.”
Read about the deals here and here.
Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities has picked up a $11 million retail condo at 50 Bond Street now occupied by Martha Stewart’s hairstylist, beauty expert Eva Scrivo.
Brian Segall of RKF repped both sides. Located between Bowery and Lafayette Street, the 6,400-square-foot store has 13-foot ceilings on the ground floor, and more than 30 feet of frontage on Bond Street.
Sold by Stewart & Sons, it was designed in 1896 by architects Cleverdon & Putzel and has six full-floor upper-level residential condominiums.
Sitt also owns the nearby 30 Bond St.
Irish pub fans can rejoice. Last month we told you the two Irish pubs on East 43rd Street, Patrick Conway’s and Annie Moore’s, were going to hoist their last pints at the end of April as the wrecking ball will take down the entire block to make way for SL Green’s One Vanderbilt.
Now we can report that Annie Moore’s has found a new home at 22 E. 41st St., between Madison and Fifth Avenues, just down the block from the entrance to the Public Library and its watchful lions.
“It’s called Library Way and there are a lot of historic buildings on the block and new retail,” said Tom Ryan, who owns Annie Moore’s along with partner Sean Columb. The restaurant will take over another old Irish pub, O’Casey’s whose owner retired.
According to CoStar data, Annie Moore’s will have 6,100 square feet in the wide townhouse, which will be entirely renovated and modernized. The asking rent for the mid-block location was a modest $62 per foot.
Patrick Conway’s owner, Ed Creed, also expects to relocate his stained-glass-filled bar and restaurant, which was named after one of Dublin’s oldest pubs.
Santa Monica’s celebrity magnet high-rise rental at 1221 Ocean Ave. is getting a multimillion-dollar makeover by Donald Bren’s Irvine Co., in part due to festering mold.
Public records show that the building, also known as Champagne Towers, has been remediating mold for several months, but the white tower may have been breeding spores for years.
While not surprising given its breezy and panoramic location next to the Pacific Ocean just north of the Santa Monica pier between Arizona and Wilshire Blvd., it is unusual for a building to go the distance on repairs. Residents, who have ranged from Britney Spears to Larry David, are now getting royal relocation packages while numerous apartments that rent between $10,000 to more than $40,000 per month and more stand vacant.
Some residents have been shifted to Beverly Hills townhouses or the nearby Fairmont Miramar, sources said, while others are being shuffled from floor-to-floor.
Philanthropist gambler and longtime former resident “Robin Hood 702” first alerted Irvine upper management of problems in the property years ago. “Donald Bren and Irvine Co. have a long way to go to bringing Champagne Towers back to the glory days, when it was the most sought-after residence in all of Los Angeles with its notorious rooftop pool parties and unparalled staff and service” Robin Hood said.
At that time it was not unusual to see Brazilian beauty Greice Santo basking in the sun next to folks that included Meagan Fox and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, while Spears would go topless.
Calls to the Irvine Co. spokesman were not immediately returned.
