SHOPPING ISLE: Here’s a bird’s eye view, along with a human-scale rendering, of the super-size commercial development being planned for the Staten Island waterfront. (
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SHOPPING ISLE: Here’s a bird’s eye view, along with a human-scale rendering, of the super-size commercial development being planned for the Staten Island waterfront. (
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What Bloomberg LP scandal?
We can’t compete with our colleague Mark DeCambre’s May 10 bombshell revelation that Bloomberg reporters were using confidential data from company computers to spy on Goldman Sachs — which opened the floodgate to a far-ranging panic involving other banks.
But we can report that it hasn’t stopped Bloomberg from adding some very pricey office floors to its Manhattan operations. The company has taken 68,000 more square feet at 120 Park Ave., sources said — including an entire floor boasting a wraparound terrace.
Bloomberg LP, headquartered at 731 Lexington Ave., first took 400,000 square feet at the 600,000-square-foot 120 Park Ave., owned by Global Holdings affiliate Eastgate Realty, in 2011.
The three-floor expansion includes the 22nd floor with the terrace. The new lease brings the tower to 100 percent occupancy.
No word on the value of the deal. Crain’s reported in 2011 the asking rent at 120 Park was $85 a square foot. A call to Jones Lang LaSalle’s Paul Glickman, the building agent, was not returned.
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Reps for high-end stores lined up at the ICSC conference in Las Vegas yesterday to check out a presentation for BFC Partners’ Empire Outlets project, even as the $250 million-plus “value retail” complex in Staten Island began its trek through the city’s public review process (ULURP).
Our spies spotted suits from Coach, Restoration Hardware, Michael Kors, Nordstrom Rack and Brooks Bros. scoping out the BFC suite. The first images of the planned shopping/dining/hotel complex near the St. George ferry terminal were shown on nypost.com yesterday.
Empire Outlets’ 340,000 square feet will include 125 designer outlet stores, a 200-room hotel, a banquet facility and a 1,250-space parking garage. Designed by SHoP Architects, it’s to feature open water view corridors.
It would stand on the other side of the Richmond County Bank Ballpark from the New York Wheel, a 600-foot-high Ferris wheel to be erected by a development team led by Wall Street titan Richard Marin.
The Wheel also takes the ULURP plunge this week. The projects are the heart of Mayor Bloomberg’s effort to bring new life to the neglected St. George waterfront.
BFC Partners managing principal Donald Capoccia said he doesn’t expect Empire Outlets to have a hard time getting through ULURP — “Staten Island elected officials have totally embraced this project.” The job requires a zoning change and certain special permits.
Capoccia pegged the development cost between $250 million and $275 million, up from previous estimates of $230 million. For construction financing, he said, “We’ll explore what’s available later,” but noted “a lot of interest from the New York City Regional Center, which locates capital for economic development through the federal EB-5 Visa Program.
EB-5 encourages participation by immigrant investors and has drawn over $250 million to city enterprises, including Steiner Studios and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp.
A hotel operator will be chosen later.
The stores come first: “The success of our project lies in core retail tenancy — the first 50,000 to 100,000 square feet will tell the story,” Capoccia said.
He was heartened that BFC Partners’ retail team, including his partner Joseph Ferrara, was at ICSC “making order out of chaos,” Capoccia said with a laugh.
Ferrara would not discuss specific tenants, but he did note, “We actually have had to turn some people away because we want a certain brand level. There are outlets and there are outlets.”
He said Empire Outlets and the Wheel, although they are entirely separate, bring synergy to one another. The two developers plan to set up a joint marketing display in the St. George Ferry Terminal in July.
Capoccia expects to break ground next winter or spring and complete the project by 2016. The $300 million Wheel also hopes to start construction next year and open by July 4, 2016.
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Overseas Shipholding Group is moving from 666 Third Ave. to 1301 Sixth Ave. The Sixth Avenue space became available when a former tenant, a subtenant of Commerzbank, legally “rejected” its lease when it fell into Chapter 11 bankruptcy — which was exactly what OSG did at 666 Third.
OSG is leaving 50,000 square feet for 32,000.
“It’s a classic example of getting better for less,” said Newmark Knight Frank’s Moshe Sukenik, who repped OSG with Newmark’s Corey Borg. Commerzbank was repped by a Cushman & Wakefield team including John Cefaly.