Jeff Sutton of Wharton Properties and Sandeep Mathrani’s GGP have just bought ICM Partners out of its sublease at the Crown Building.
ICM has been occupying 52,292 square feet on the third and fourth floors of the office building in a sublease from Playboy Enterprises.
As ICM’s sublease went to the last day of 2019, it was thus in the way of the retail conversion of these lower floors at the 730 Fifth Ave. property.
ICM, the international talent agency, now has $17 million — or $325 per square foot — to find and build out new quarters.
Neil Goldmacher of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is leading ICM’s search with a focus in Midtown for what sources tell me will be a similar-sized space accessible to both media and their celebrity clientele.
Since the moola came before the move, it is likely more of it will be forthcoming when the current space is broom clean.
Sutton and GGP purchased the building for $1.775 billion at the beginning of 2015. The upstairs and its gilded crown will eventually be separately owned by Michael Shvo and Russian investor Vladislav Doronin, who will install an Aman hotel plus 23 ultraluxury condominiums that are likely to do well because of the location and exclusivity.
So far, Bulgari has tied down its corner retail at a record-setting $5,500 per square foot while Ermenegildo Zegna has nabbed the retail space next door.
Stay tuned.
Some of the recipients of the $5.6 million that poured into Donald Trump’s fundraiser for veterans are right here in the city and have connections to real estate.
Trump revealed the names of the recipients and the amounts given to each at Trump Tower on Tuesday. Saying he “vetted the vets,” Trump noted that, unlike the case with some fundraising groups, no money was being taken for administrative purposes.
Jamaica-based Veterans-in-Command received $150,000 for its work helping find temporary and permanent homes for homeless vets and battered wives. Led by veteran Larry E. Robertson, who came to Trump Tower on Tuesday to stand with Trump, the group has two homes of its own and also interfaces with city agencies to get the vets off the street.
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund was established in 1982 by the late Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher, who were also founders of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and the Fisher House Foundation.
IFH received $175,000 for work providing family grants to vets, running rehabilitation centers focused on traumatic brain injuries, and providing research and diagnosis.
The Fisher House Foundation, which received $115,000, provides homes where vets can stay while undergoing their long rehabilitation. There is one in Albany, while a groundbreaking is expected soon for a new facility in West Haven, Conn.
There is still plenty of retail life in Soho. Harold Sherr of Sherr Equities has signed a deal with Rituals cosmetics for his gem at 489 Broadway on the northwest corner of Broome Street in Soho.
The 1,200 square feet on the ground had an asking rent of $1,200 per square foot, and sources said the deal closed at more than $1,000 a square foot.
Simon Dallimore of Dallimore & Co. represented the Dutch cosmetics giant. It now has several city outposts after launching out of Bloomingdale’s and opening its first US store at 231 Lafayette Street in 2014.
Ariel Schuster and Andrew Connolly, both of RKF, represented Sherr in the transaction.
Schuster said that the rare corner availability was a hit with Rituals as it was with many of the tenants in the market.
On the Broome Street side of the building, two new tenants that came in as pop-ups have since transitioned to long-term leases.
They include the growing watch company Daniel Wellington as well as Zee.dog, which focuses on accessories for canine companions — and, after moving in, kept right on woofing.
