The exquisite Madison Avenue building rented by Hermès has a new owner.
Ben Ashkenazy and Michael Alpert’s Ashkenazy Acquisitions has just paid $115.17 million for the four-story building at Madison Avenue on the northwest corner of 62nd Street from an offshore entity of the Brooks family, documents show.
With 8,000 square feet, the transfer comes to just shy of $14,000 per square foot.
Hermès leased the property at the end of 2007 and has nine years remaining, sources said. It brings in about $4 million per year, which is well under current market asking and taking rents. A $72 million mortgage is held by Bank of China.
The former Luca Luca location was sold by Luca Orlandi in 2008 for $50 million and was entirely redeveloped for Hermès.
The Ashkenazy execs did not return calls for comment but sources said that they, like other local investors, have been on a buying spree geared toward offices, hotels and retail properties in prime locations across the country. In the last year Ashkenazy has purchased the Marriott East Side, the retail at 522 Fifth Ave., and the original Barneys building on West 17th Street and Seventh Avenue. They also own the Barneys store at 660 Madison Ave.
Coming out swinging, Robert Freedman, co-chairman, tri-state, of Colliers International, said at a press briefing yesterday there is a lot of space languishing in the East 60s on Madison because of “oligarchic pricing.” “The[se owners] dominate the block and have high costs to carry and are profoundly arrogant,” said Freedman, who mentioned Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities and Friedland Properties as two of the culprits.
Retailers are pushing back, Freedman added, leaving many properties unrented while the owners wait to get their targeted dollars. But in some cases, their investment partners are demanding some income, so in certain areas of the city, spaces are being slowly absorbed, albeit at non-record rents.
“That’s silly,” said Friedland principal William Friedland. “If asking rents are too high, the owners are the ones that take the hit more than anybody.”
Sitt didn’t return requests for comment by press time.
The Crown Building can cross off one of its tenants.
The offices of Vera Bradley, famous for paisley handbags sported by fabulous women, will be moving from part of the 16th floor of 730 Fifth Ave. to the entire seventh floor of 681 Fifth Ave. this fall. The new 5,900-square-foot space in the former Fortunoff building has high ceilings and lots of light.
The company had a sublease from Richemont that expires at the end of September.
Greg Kraut and Justin Grabell of Avison Young represented Vera Bradley in the transaction. Building owner Metropole Realty Advisors was represented by Cushman & Wakefield’s Mark Mandell and Ethan Silverstein. Asking rent for the lower floors was in the $70s per square foot, and another higher floor has an asking rent of more than $100 a square foot.
Since the Crown building is slated for condos and more retail, the new owners are no longer writing new leases.
Because the aging population needs more than two aspirin, the city is seeing expansions of its world-class medical facilities.
The Hospital for Special Surgery is now bringing staff into 50,777 square feet at the base of 1233 Second Ave. The 30-year lease for the lower level, ground, second and third floors will provide room for a mix of medical and administrative offices.
Its current tuition-free nursing school tenant, Grace Institute, is moving downtown to 40 Rector St.
Michael Dubin of Savitt Partners represented the hospital. Justin DiMare and Howard Kesseler of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the building ownership, which had an asking rent of $65 per square foot and will redo the medical space. “There was a lot of demand,” said DiMare. “The hospitals are all in an expansion mode.”
Indeed, back in June, HSS purchased the 25,000-square-foot lot at 522 E. 74th St. for $6.5 million. It will become part of its still-vacant adjacent site of about 150,000 square feet. This is also next to the Sloan-Kettering/Hunter site that was purchased at 525 E. 74th St. for $215 million, previously reported by my Post colleague Steve Cuozzo, for a development that had long been blocked by neighbors.
On behalf of Joy Construction, DiMare and Kesseler are also marketing a ground-up development site at 330 E. 62nd St., which can host a nearly 100,000-square-foot building. The vacant former archdiocese school runs mid-block from East 61st to 62nd streets between First and Second avenues. The duo is targeting build-to-suit medical offices that can be triple net leased for north of the mid-$60s per square foot or up, depending on the project.
