BARNES & Noble will soon close its giant bookstore that first made the Ladies’ Mile chic again, according to real estate brokers hired by the landlord to market the space.
The publicly traded bookseller apparently won’t renew the lease expiring next spring on its 41,700 square-foot leviathan at 675 Sixth Ave., where it’s occupied the whole west side blockfront between 21st-22nd streets for 15 years.
Last April, Barnes & Noble said it would close its store at 4 Astor Place by year’s end – a “business decision” that drew gasps even though that branch is smaller than the one on Sixth avenue.
Landlord Israel Taub has tapped Prudential Douglas Elliman retail aces Faith Hope Consolo and Joseph A. Aquino to market the sprawling space at 675 Sixth, up for grabs next May.
Barnes & Noble spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating insisted, “We have options in the lease and have not decided whether we are renewing.” The availability, however, is touted not only by the brokers, but also on databases such as Mrofficespace.com.
Consolo called it a “picturesque location with the added benefit of ample foot traffic seven days a week.” Aquino noted the once nondescript neighborhood now boasts such retailers as Filene’s Basement, Container Store and Men’s Wearhouse.
Barnes & Noble still has 16 stores in the city, 9 of them in Manhattan. On Nov. 28, it plans to open a large new outlet at 270 Greenwich St. in an Edward Minskoff-developed condo tower.
And it has signed a lease to open an even bigger emporium at Extell’s new condo project at Lexington Avenue and 86th Street next year.
But an exit from the Ladies’ Mile will be felt by those who live nearby in the new apartment towers, which went up after the bookseller’s arrival and helped validate the neighborhood as a residential and shopping destination.
The store occupies the high-ceilinged ground floor and mezzanine level of a 6-story, 1900 edifice described as “American Renaissance” by the AIA Guide to New York City.
Consolo said, “We’re marketing it as a single block, but it can be divided as well. This could be another Apple, a Sony, a Barneys.” She wouldn’t say what the asking rent would be, but noted that ground-floor retail in the area runs from $200-$250 per square foot.
However, competing brokers said large nearby retailers were mainly discounters. Lansco president Alan Victor said, “Unless there are some physical limitations to the space, they’d be staying if the bottom line was strong. Retailers are not giving up locations just because their lease is up.”
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For Larry Silverstein, the law firm Cleary Gottlieb is the one that got away. The firm won’t be moving to Silverstein’s 7 World Trade Center after all, but will likely renew its lease at Brookfield Properties’ One Liberty Plaza nearby, sources said.
The deal won’t be done for several weeks. But insiders said Cleary Gottlieb and Brookfield are on track for a 20-year renewal for some 450,000 square feet at One Liberty, or about 40,000 square feet more than it now has.
In a reflection of downtown’s strength, the law firm is expected to pay in the $60s per square-foot range. “Silverstein wanted even more,” said one person familiar with the talks.
Brokers and landlords have closely watched Cleary Gottlieb ever since its interest in 7 WTC was first reported by my colleague Lois Weiss back in April.
A deal with Silverstein would have pretty much filled his new tower’s top floors. “Talking to Silverstein wasn’t a negotiating ploy,” said another insider. “They were seriously interested in moving.” Even without Cleary Gottlieb, 7 WTC is about 72 percent full.
All participants in the talks – including Newmark Knight Frank CEO Barry Gosin and the same firm’s Moshe Sukenik (for Cleary Gottlieb) and Brookfield COO/leasing honcho Dennis Friedrich – either could not be reached or declined comment. A rep for Silverstein also declined comment.
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Law firm White Fleischner & Fino is leaving 140 Broadway for a prewar downtown office building – Broad Street Development’s 61 Broadway, where it’s taking 22,500 square feet.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Andrew Peretz, Robert A.B. Baraf and Steven Braun represented White Fleischner. Broad Street was repped in-house by Daniel M. Blanco and Jill Burrowes.
The 1916-vintage tower is 95 percent occupied. Peretz called it “one of downtown’s best prewar locations.”
He said asking rents at 61 Broadway are in the mid-high $40s per square foot, “and we did our deal in the mid 40s.”
Busy Peretz also represented TriBeCa Associates in a recent net lease from Trinity Real Estate of 330 Hudson St., where Tribeca and Square Mile Capital will spend $220 million to redevelop the warehouse into a 22-story mixed-use project. steve.couzzo@nypost.com