FASHION house Hugo Boss plans to move into about 4,100 square feet at the former Western Beef building at 401 W. 14th St. – the same place where Apple expects to open a store.
“We’ve had strong interest throughout the marketing process from a diverse group of fashion retailers and home-furnishing [outfits],” said Brian Walker, a vice president of acquisitions for the Taconic Partnership ownership.
The building is located at the Meatpacking District corner of West 14th Street and Ninth Avenue.
A smaller space of 2,600 feet between Boss and Apple has an asking rent of $500 per foot, and some who kicked Boss’ bricks are still interested in being in the trendy area where rents have risen from $75 a foot just two years ago.
The redevelopment of the 62,000-foot building will be ready at the end of the year, at which time both Boss and Apple will start building.
“This will be the first redeveloped property delivered to the market and the demand for both office and retail space is high,” Walker said.
Jeffrey Sutton of NYC Prime Realty walked in with the tenant while Robert K. Futterman and Karen Bellantoni of Robert K. Futterman & Associates repped Taconic.
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The fate of the Gucci store at 685 Fifth Ave. will likely be known in the next week or so. Offers to lease its 16,000 feet on the first through third floors on the southeast corner of 45th Street are due on Friday.
Cushman & Wakefield brokers James Downey, Eric Le Goff and Gene Spiegelman are spearheading the marketing efforts. The design house owns the building.
By the way, we hear that Gucci’s yearly tab for its new 40,000-foot space at Trump Tower will bring in $32 million a year for Donald Trump, based on a ground rent of $3,800 a foot.
That store could open in time for Valentine’s Day.
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In the ongoing battle for buildings, there are a dozen bidders jockeying in the second round for the Philip Morris Building at 120 Park Ave., which is being marketed by CB Richard Ellis.
Also, Shorenstein Properties might have the lead for the Citibank building at 388 Greenwich St., but with the financial giant’s larger concerns, we’re watching to see if there are changes in the deal, which is being handled by Cushman & Wakefield and is supposed to include a partial leaseback with a 15-year phase-out in occupancy.
Stay tuned.
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Stonehenge Partners’ Ofer Yardeni and Joel Seiden just closed on the famous Brill Building – their first office venture.
Invesco had signed the original contract and Stonehenge became its partner on the deal, which went for just over $150 million.
Norman Sturner and Westbrook Partners sold the 177,000-foot building at 1619 Broadway after owning it for only a year, while Douglas Harmon at Eastdil Secured handled the current marketing effort.
Yardeni said they have hired Glenn Isaacson‘s team at CB Richard Ellis as the leasing agency. The building is filled to the rafters with longtime entertainment-industry tenants like Lorne Michaels and Paul Simon, with Colony Records as the prominent retailer on the 49th Street corner.
“We will renovate and upgrade and keep the tenants and make it the premier music-industry building,” vowed Yardeni. “We are value creators.”
In a second deal, Stonehenge signed a contract to buy 360 E. 65th St. for close to $130 million.
The sellers are Charles Herzka and Joseph Neumann of Broadway Management.
The deal was marketed by Brian Ezratty, vice chairman of Eastern Consolidated, who did not return calls for comment.
The 21-story apartment building with 165 units will be renamed Stonehenge 65, Yardeni said. “We will renovate the hallways and canopy and bring it to the standard of a luxury rental.”
“When everybody is telling you doom and gloom, we are very busy and very active,” Yardeni added, flush from closing their $500 million investment fund.