Zara’s parent, the Spanish conglomerate Inditex Group, is staking out a big claim in SoHo.
We hear the company is preparing to lock up a space now partially rented to Old Navy for $250 million.
The wide 503-511 Broadway goes through to Mercer midblock between Broome and Spring streets.
SoHo sources say the pact could encompass three floors of about 25,000 square feet each — including the ground floor rented to Old Navy through January 2018. That has been quietly marketed for sublease for many years. Next year, the way-under-market lease bumps to $104 a square foot.
The deal may also include the lower level (previously fixed up and rented briefly to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex) as well as the vacant second floor, sometimes used for fashion events.
It is also unclear if the global Spanish conglom is buying a condominium or merely signing a licensing agreement with the Fung family building owners. No documents are yet filed. The $250 million price would work out to $10,000 a square foot for just Old Navy, or $4,000 per square foot for the whole shebang.
A family member said the primary dealmaker was on vacation, and he did not respond to messages.
In March 2011, Inditex paid $331,661,026, or $9,476 per square foot, for about 35,000 square feet in the heart of Midtown’s luxury shopping district, at 666 Fifth Ave., to open a Zara store.
At nearby 640 Fifth, Vornado Realty Trust is asking $2,500 a square foot and up for “townhouse”-like splits of the current H&M store.
SoHo owners believe the Old Navy area’s current rents of $450 to $500 a square foot could be pushed to $1,500 a foot or so with this deal.
No one from Inditex responded.
In August, Vornado bought 501 Broadway next door for $31 million. Then occupied by Necessary Clothing, the now-vacant retail space has 3,800 square feet on the ground, a 4,800 square-foot selling basement and a 500 square-foot storage sub-basement. That sales deal, brokered by Itzhaki Properties, works out to $3,400 per square foot including the basement.
Our sleuths say Vornado is now focusing on glomming retail pieces both below and along Canal Street.
To that end, we hear Vornado will pay Jay Schwimmer $50 million for 443 Broadway. Vornado and Schwimmer did not respond to calls.
Again, the tenant is Necessary Clothing, paying a mere $1.3 million a year for 8,000 square feet on the ground and 8,000 square feet underground. It is probable that Vornado cut a pact to buy out that lease — or even more.
The clothing store, which did not respond to calls or e-mails, has several prime Broadway locations and is readying another outlet along Canal. In a return to its roots, is Vornado also grabbing the entire company for its under-market leases? Hmmm.
We also hear Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities property at 530-536 Broadway will likely be coming to the sales market early next year, as Sitt has almost completed its redevelopment and lease.
Over the last four years, we hear Sitt has successfully played his retail game of sliding into a neighborhood and quietly buying, and now has more properties along Broadway in SoHo than anyone else.
Sitt has told friends he got in “before the rest of the market woke up to its opportunity for high rents.” Those owned properties that we found include nos. 440, 470, 494, 530 and 536, along with 60 and 70 Greene St.
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The off-market sale of 309 W. 57th St., by Columbus Circle, has closed for $42.5 million.
Sam Schneider and Daniel Glaser of Imperium Capital, along with Barry Rudofsky’s Bronstein Properties, bought the 75,000 square-foot building with 102 apartments. “We’re pretty excited about it,” said Rudofsky.
Once the home of Media South Studios, where folks like Frank Sinatra and Jimi Hendrix laid down tracks, the retail space became the Bar Bat. The current 13,700 square-foot Providence NYC club and event space has a lease for another seven years.
The deal includes four buildings, four sets of unsold co-op shares and the David Associates management business. “We will continue with the third-party management team,” added Rudofsky.
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Malayan Banking Berhad, a Malaysian Bank with 22 million customers in 19 countries, fondly known as Maybank, is moving and expanding into the entire 11th floor of 14,812 square feet at 400 Park Ave. on the northwest corner of East 54th Street.
Maybank first subleased a piece of the 9th floor in 1984 for its US operations. The new lease is direct with the Waterman Interests.
Daniel Horowitz and Gary Kerper of Studley represented Maybank while Drew Isaacson represented Waterman in-house, which has asking rents of $80 per square foot for base floors and $100 per square foot at the top of the 22-story tower.