The Paris apartment building on the Upper West Side at West 97th Street is in contract for nearly $150 million to Larry Gluck’s Stellar Management.
The Art Deco former Hotel Paris was reconfigured into 175 residential apartments of which, sources said, around 20 percent are rent-stabilized. The seller is Bruce Menin’s Crescent Heights.
Investment marketing gurus Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil Secured have been quietly pitching the building on behalf of Crescent Heights.
The 24-story building is known for its luxurious 16,000-square-foot fitness facility and huge swimming pool.
Westbrook Partners paid $85.8 million at the height of the market in 2007. By 2010, David Bistricer and the Rieder family purchased it for $72.36 million and had a conversion plan approved before selling it two years ago for $123 million to Crescent, which has since updated many apartments.
It is likely that Stellar will continue to combine, renovate and rent out the Paris as vacancies occur, particularly as Gluck is not a converter. Most bedrooms have their own bathroom and some units have additional en suite nanny or office-like areas. Several three-bedroom units are listed on StreetEasy with rents from $10,000 to more than $16,000 a month, another inducement to keep on renting.
Sources said Stellar is in the midst of obtaining financing with a closing scheduled within the next month.
None of the parties responded to requests for comment.
More developers are now focusing on the higher-end rental market.
Speaking at the Eastern Consolidated forum last week, both Amy Rose of Rose Associates and Jeff Levine of Douglaston Development say they are concentrating on rentals.
Since rentals are the “bread and butter” of New York City, Rose says many investment funds now “strictly want” rental housing.
The luxury rental product also now “mirrors condominium finishes,” she said.
“In the upper luxury high-end space, people are choosing to rent at extraordinary numbers,” Rose observed, using $20,000 per month as an example. Rose and Friedland Properties are renting apartments on Broadway on the Upper West Side, for instance, at more than $100 per square foot.
Rose is building another rental with Friedland at 7 W. 21st St. and redeveloping 70 Pine St., where there will be rentals and extended-stay units.
Along with life changes, reasons for renting can vary from not having a down payment to needing a temp rental between selling one unit and completing renovations on another.
As for condominiums, if it now costs $800 a square foot for just land — between rising construction costs and financing that includes preferred equity — “you don’t make a penny until the sale is over $3,000 to $4,000 a square foot,” said Levine. “I’d rather buy a taxi and talk to people all day long.”
Because of tax implications, many families who want to cash out are also not selling long-held properties but instead leasing land to developers for rentals. Levine is pursuing such a site where he can build 800,000 square feet by Hudson Yards.
“I see this world coming back to those that do rentals,” he added.
The dangling of millions of dollars in relocation benefits has persuaded another New York company to make the leap across the Hudson.
Law firm Eltman, Eltman & Cooper has signed a 10-year deal to relocate from Lower Manhattan to 101 Hudson St. in Jersey City in return for a $5.6 million Grow NJ tax credit as the firm brings 80 jobs to the Garden State.
Now located in 14,500 square feet within 140 Broadway, the 16,000-square-foot Jersey deal will give the lawyers a tad more in the 1.25 million-square-foot office tower — just one PATH stop across the River Hudson.
Joseph Genovesi and John Harte of Savills Studley represented the law firm, which was going to renew before studying the market extensively.
The new open-plan office geared toward employee retention has a lower New Jersey “loss” factor. Said Harte: “It’s a home run.”
Building owner Mack-Cali Realty Corp. was represented in-house by Tom Savoca and now has asking rents in the $40s per square foot.
JPMorgan Chase recently agreed to bring over 2,150 employees to New Jersey in return for $19 million in incentives.
Another $33.9 million in New Jersey tax incentives will be soaked up by New York Life, which is moving 325 jobs intrastate — from Parsippany to the Goldman Sachs tower in Jersey City — where the Wall Street bank now wants to build yet another 900-square-foot-plus tower next door.
In a first-rate food coup, Trader Joe’s has just signed a 13,700-square-foot lease at downtown Brooklyn’s upcoming City Point development.
Roy Roberts of Milestone Associates and David Rosenberg of RKF represented Trader Joe’s, which will be on the concourse level near the DeKalb Market Hall. Both are expected to open in 2016.
The upper floors will also house a Century 21 Department Store, CityTarget and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
City Point, a project being developed by Acadia Realty Trust and Washington Square Partners, was represented by Peter Ripka and Jason Pennington of Ripco Real Estate.
“We couldn’t see a better match for the fresh food in the market hall as Trader Joe’s has the ability to cut across so many demographics and we will attract people from all the various neighborhoods,” said Paul Travis of Washington Square Partners.
Rents on the concourse level range from $40 to $75 a square foot and “everything in between,” added Chris Conlon of Acadia Realty Trust. Along with some smaller vendor spots, the concourse has two availabilities of 2,600 square feet and 6,000 square feet, “one of which we firmly believe should be a restaurant,” Conlon added.
It looks as though DKNY will be closing its flagship 655 Madison Ave. location on the northeast corner of East 60th Street after the holiday season. The 18,000-square-foot store is spread on several levels and DKNY is likely to seek a more intimate space to relaunch the brand since, “after much soul-searching,” founder Donna Karan stepped away last July 1 to focus on her own Urban Zen line.
Rather than subleasing its remaining almost 10-year term itself, the company, owned by LVMH since 2001, has asked Pat Breslin, Michael Cohen and Andy Roos of Colliers International to market the space, which is in the base of an office building long owned by company principals.
This low-basis ownership also enables the brokers to cut a longer-term deal with a new tenant at below the area’s asking rents, which can run from $1,200 to $2,500 a square foot, brokers say.
For instance, across the street, Brioni has leased a duplex store with 3,500 square feet on each level at a rent of around $8 million per square foot.
Brokers say the Colliers team has already offered the entire DKNY space to them for less than that amount.
It was just a year ago that DKNY shuttered its 11,000-square-foot store at 819 Madison when its lease expired.
LVMH declined comment.
