As Fifth Avenue below Saks gradually sheds its schlocky retail image, Extell chief Gary Barnett has his eye on a project that would accelerate the avenue’s ongoing upmarket trend.
Among other options he’s considering, Barnett might build an “internal” shopping mall that would front on Fifth Avenue’s west side between West 46th and West 47th streets, and have an apartment tower or hotel on top.
“We think the market is there for a home to merchants at rents that merchants can afford,” Barnett said.
The retail complex — which might also accommodate a single department store — would basically be T-shaped. Its main or only entrance would be on Fifth Avenue, with most of the shopping area arrayed from north to south between 46th and 47th streets.
Extell owns or controls 10 different buildings on the north and south sides of West 46th and 47th streets as well as on part of the west Fifth Avenue blockfront between them. The assemblage now includes 562-564 Fifth Ave. at the crucial northwest corner of Fifth and West 46th and extends nearly 250 feet west along the side street.
Barnett emphasized that no decisions have been made even though demolition of old buildings will start next month. “You can ask me anything you want [about] what we’ll do because I don’t know myself,” he laughed.
But the Fifth Avenue mall notion is the first time he’s spoken publicly about Extell’s possible intentions. Barnett said other possibilities include an office building with a smaller volume of retail at the base.
You can only marvel at a company confident enough to still be weighing options after it’s spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years buying buildings, leaseholds and air rights from landlords including SL Green and Thor Equities.
Right now, many of the properties are an eyesore — vacant at street level and buried under sidewalk bridges and black netting.
But Extell isn’t one of those “developers” that ravage a block and leave it a mess until a white knight comes along — as its long-in-coming but ultimately successful projects such as One57 and the International Gem Tower on West 47th Street prove.
High-end law firm Nixon Peabody has been a sizable tenant for more than 20 years at Sage Realty’s 437 Madison Ave., where it has more than 100,000 square feet.
With several co-terminus leases expiring there in 2018, sources said the firm has had conversations with owners of at least two other locations — Larry Silverstein’s Four World Trade Center and SL Green’s Tower 46 — aka 55 W. 46th, the office portion of Extell’s Gem Tower. (Extell sold the 319,000-square-foot office component to SL Green last year.)
Nixon Peabody might also decide to renew at 437 Madison, we’re told. But the firm’s interest in the other locations suggests it’s mulling a brand-new product.
While Four World Trade and 55 W. 46th St. at first might seem to have nothing in common, both are newly minted products boasting state-of-the art electronics, column-free floor plates and expansive views.
No comment from reps for Silverstein and SL Green.
The vacant five-story building at 18 Harrison St. in Tribeca appears headed for a fashionable future. A company affiliated with Italian design firm WP Lavori has bought the property for $7.925 million and plans to renovate it for likely fashion-related use.
Douglas Elliman Commercial’s Louis Puopolo and Alex Furst represented the seller, a local partnership. New Vista Horizons’ Bryan Ware repped the buyer.
The 7,807-square-foot building also has 2,150 of available development rights on the cobblestone block between Hudson and Greenwich streets.
WP Lavori recently opened its first US store on Smith Street in Brooklyn. It is licensed to design, produce and distribute several apparel lines including American outdoor apparel brand Woolrich.
Although WP Lavori founder and president Cristina Calori is said to be a principal of the purchasing company, it was not immediately known exactly how 18 Harrison would be used.
Superfly Productions is moving from 25 E. 21st St. to Atco Properties & Management’s 381 Park Ave. S., where it has signed for 16,267 square feet. The asking rent for the space was $68 per square foot.
Superfly produces large-scale music events including the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee and Outside Lands in San Francisco. Superfly was repped by Ellman Realty Advisor’s Marco Ellman and Atco was repped by John Cinosky and Peter Goldich in-house.
In the newest lease at One World Trade Center, media company Mic Network has signed for the entire 82nd floor with 36,000 square feet, tower owners the Port Authority and Durst Organization said on Monday.
Mic will move from 325 Hudson St. The company creates content aimed at millennial audiences, including original stories and high-quality video. The deal brings 1 WTC to 67 percent leased.
Speaking of 1 WTC: What is Westfield up to in the West Concourse, the marble-clad pedestrian appendage to the “Calatrasaurus” that runs parallel to the tower’s base?
While we await promised stores and coffee bars, a mysterious, floor-to-ceiling barrier of metal and gypsum started popping up over the weekend along the concourse’s south side.
The eyesore apparently will run the full length of the walkway, narrowing it by at least seven feet.
But sources assured us it’s just a “temporary structure” needed to install digital signs that Westfield plans to use for the shops, and when finished will be placed flat against the wall and get in no one’s way.
Whew!