The Meatpacking District is getting spicier as several more projects are under way.
Area spies say Neil Bender of William Gottlieb Real Estate has joint-ventured on yet two more projects with Bobby Cayre’s Aurora Capital Associates. The companies already completed 21-27 Ninth Ave., where Sephora and Catch NYC reside.
Now, to entice a dozen new retailers, the nine low-rise buildings at Nos. 48 through 74 Gansevoort Street between Greenwich and Washington streets will undergo tens of millions of dollars’ worth of renovations to the warehouses overseen by BKSK Architects.
The meaty older buildings have historic sidewalk marquees and run 385 feet on Gansevoort Street with another 80 feet along each of the other streets.
The plans are to be revealed at an International Council of Shopping Centers event next week, sources said, with tenants to take occupancy starting in January 2016.
“It’s still in early stages and there is a lot of planning to do,” said Gottlieb’s spokesman, Marty McLaughlin.
The diagonal cross street is a gateway to the Whitney Museum entrance, and the High Line ends there with an elevator and stairs.
To increase palate allure, restaurateur Keith McNally is negotiating to install a rebirth of his beloved Pastis, but no deals have been inked. He did not return calls or e-mails. Pastis was previously bumped from another Gottlieb/Aurora redevelopment project at 9 Ninth Ave., where a 70,000-square-foot Restoration Hardware store is under construction.
Meanwhile, Gottlieb has also brought in Aurora to co-develop 40 Tenth Ave. This long-awaited redevelopment of an ugly blue warehouse will overlook the Hudson River and back onto the High Line between West 13th and 14th streets.
Jeanne Gang’s Studio Gang Architects has officially been hired by the joint development team to create the 190-foot-tall building known as Solar Carve. This office tower will have 150,000 square feet, of which one-third will be retail. Office rents will likely run north of $150 a foot, in line with the soaring office rents in this desirable tech area. The building has been debated for several years as its “gem-like facade” was sculpted “based on geometric relationships between the building and the sun’s path, as well as the views held between the park and the Hudson.”
Solar Carve is set right across the High Line and west of 860 Washington St., where office asking rents are $135 to $190 per square foot.
That 12-story office tower is under development by Property Group Partners and Romanoff Equities and scheduled to open by the end of this year.
It will also have a two-story retail space designed to be level with the High Line, represented by Joanne Podell at Cushman & Wakefield, who on Tuesday confirmed the plan at a Bisnow event. She is asking $500 a square foot on the second floor next to the High Line and $300 a foot for the ground.
Aurora’s Jared Epstein also spoke at Bisnow. Aurora and Vornado Realty Trust are working on the new office tower on the southwest corner of West 15th at 61 Ninth Ave. on the Prince Lumber site.
We now hear it will be designed by starchitect Rafael Viñoly.
Aurora, Vornado and Viñoly’s office declined comment.
Say au revoir to A La Vieille Russie.
The retailer of vintage jewelry and interesting pins is leaving the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 59th Street in 2017. Things have changed since it leased the space in the Sherry Netherland some 40 years ago. Now Apple’s glass box draws millions of visitors that drop millions of dollars on things they never knew they needed.
Robert Cohen of RKF is spearheading the release of the 6,545 square feet on two levels on behalf of the co-op board. Cohen is seeking an iconic retailer that will fit the status of the building where an apartment recently sold for $70 million.
