The Georgetown Company has settled on architect Rafael Vinoly to re-imagine the 1928-era 787 Eleventh Ave. as a high-tech office building with auto dealerships at its base.

Georgetown also just inked a deal with BNF Automotive Group for 265,000 square feet. This will enable BNF’s Jaguar Land Rover of Manhattan to renovate its current facilities as well as bring Nissan and Infiniti to Manhattan.

The Auto Row pact will enable the dealerships to have their own entrances and bookend the new lobby for the upstairs office tenants.

Gary B. Flom, president and chief executive of BNF, says Jaguar Land Rover will have 150,000 square feet on the 54th Street side that will be completely renovated with the franchise’s new global image branding.

Nissan of Manhattan and Infiniti of Manhattan will also put new branding on their own showrooms with 100,000 square feet on the 55th Street side.

“We have a long history of operating successful dealerships in Manhattan,” said Flom. “It is a unique place with unique needs and challenges.”

Michael Kadosh of CBRE represented Nissan and Infiniti in the deal with BNF.

“The building sits on the 50-yard line for auto facilities,” said Kadosh, who has represented Chrysler and Audi in other local transactions.

Brian Goldman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented BNF in the new lease with Georgetown and previously worked on a deal for Porsche.

Georgetown was represented by a CBRE team led by Tri-state CEO Mary Ann Tighe that included Evan Haskell, Arkady Smolyansky and Ross Zimbalist.

“We are so excited because the creation of these new auto facilities will complement so well all of the large, 60,000-square-foot floors and highly amenitized office space above,” Georgetown President Adam Flatto said.

Under Vinoly’s architectural guidance, the company will revamp and add square footage to the eight-story, 464,000-square-foot building with sweeping views over De Witt Clinton Park and the Hudson River.

“We will really transform it from what exists there already [with a] tremendous amount of light and air and will add terraces as well as roof space,” Flatto said.

Flatto declined to discuss reports that his partner in the building’s $255.5 million purchase from Ford Motor Co., Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund, was moving its own offices to the building’s 150,000 square feet of office space or that a tennis court will sit on the roof.

Nevertheless, Flatto said there will be “a range of amenities geared toward lifestyle and wellness.”

Georgetown also retained the basement for office tenant parking, charging stations and bicycles.

Added CBRE’s Tighe, “The idea is to keep the industrial character but enlarge the windows and create spectacular office space.”


A modernized six-story building at 885 Tenth Ave., at the corner of West 58th Street, is expected to fetch around $50 million.

The 37,000-square-foot apartment building — which has another 19,700 feet of buildable air rights — includes 36 renovated one- and two-bedroom units, a new roof deck and two retail spaces.

The investment sales team of Eric Anton, Jeff Julien and Steven Rutman of HFF are marketing the property.

The sellers bought it just a year ago for $32.3 million.

“They renovated to condo finishes,” Anton said. “It is totally gorgeous.”


The rebounding of the Avenue of the Americas continues with the Paramount Group leasing out roughly 167,000 square feet at its 1301 Ave. of the Americas.

Fresh off the largest-ever initial public offering for a US real-estate investment trust, Paramount plans to renovate but retain the dark wood mahogany lobby, sources said.

Meanwhile, commercial litigation law firm Susman Godfrey will take over the entire 32nd floor of around 31,000 square feet after moving from its current offices at 560 Lexington Ave.

It was represented by Chris Mongeluzo of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.

Oak Tree Capital Management also extended its lease on the 34th floor and added the 33rd floor for a total of about 63,000 square feet in a deal repped by John Nugent at CBRE.

Key Bank will move from 575 Fifth Ave. into part of the 35th floor plus the entire 36th and 37th floors for a total of 73,000 square feet. JLL’s Kenneth Siegel and Aaron Ellison represented the bank.

JLL colleagues Frank Doyle, David Kleiner and Clark Finney represented Paramount, which had asking rents in the $90s per foot.

No one returned requests for comment.

According to CoStar data, another 128,000 square feet are available at the top of the building on the 41st through 45th floors with an asking rent of $105 a square foot.