LOVE BRAWL: In the aftermath of the melee (left) that involved Chris Brown (center) and others, owners are spurring a battle of the bottles, including the pricey Ace of Spades (right). (
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Another bottle brawl has broken out — this time between nightlife operators and building owners.
After the Chris Brown–Drake bottle-throwing melee at SoHo hot spot W.i.P., bottle sales at clubs are getting hammered by rising lawsuits and insurance costs as building owners try to distance themselves from the glass-shard fray.
Attorney Gabriel Levinson of Tarter Krinsky & Drogin, who represents nightlife owners and operators as well as building owners, says, “The fallout from the fights over the bottles has just begun.”
The champagne-fueled fight over Rihanna that injured NBA star Tony Parker and others has already bred a bevy of multi-million dollar lawsuits.
Levinson says the club is also suing the city for approving its security plan and then shutting it down after the now-infamous incident.
“People are putting in leases that the clubs need to serve in plastic cups, but it won’t stop people from throwing the bottle,” he added.
Building owners, he says, should also be including lease-termination clauses that automatically force out the club if it’s shut down by police or for other reasons.
He predicts that clubs may have all patrons sign waivers and indemnification clauses but admitted it would be hard to get the average club-goer to sign, let alone celebrities.
Levinson says he knows of many bottle brawls that don’t get the publicity because they didn’t involve celebrities.
“Fights involving bottles of liquor go back to the Wild West, and now it’s evolved into buying the most expensive bottles and who gets to sit at the better table, and who gets to send each other the most expensive Ace of Spades champagne — or even a case of it,” he said.
The prestigious and expensive bottles — which run from $1,200 to $100,000 for a 30-liter mammoth golden “Midas” — have become a sign of one-upmanship and a weapon of choice for club fights.
Thanks to the Chris Brown-Drake incident, hip-hip impresario Jay-Z has banned bottle service at his upcoming 40/40 club at the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn.
Clubs rely on pricey bottle service — a $5,000 to $10,000 tab isn’t unusual — to pay the rent, but they also can’t monitor individual intake of liquor when bottles are served.
“There is a lot of risk to leasing out space for a restaurant, bar or a club, but the owners can charge more because the clubs make a quarter-million gross on a Friday night,” says Levinson. “And that is why bottle service is so successful and club owners are fighting for it.”
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Sentry Centers will open a 38,750 square-foot conference center in former Goldman Sachs space at 32 Old Slip by the East River.
The company has two in Midtown — at 750 Third and 810 Seventh — but this is the first major conference center downtown.
The $3.6 million renovation of a former internal training and conference center is expected to be completed in time for a December opening.
CBRE teams worked for both the Beacon Capital ownership as well as Sentry, with Jared Freede, Rocco Laginestra and Michael Wellen repping the tenant. Chairman Robert Alexande; Doug Lehman; David Maurer-Hollaender, vice chairman; and Bruce Surry represented the building owners.
According to CBRE, average downtown asking rents are just under $40 a square foot.
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For those who may want smaller facilities or temporary office space, HQ Global Workspaces will open next year at the Coates Building at 555 Madison Ave. on the southeast corner of East 56th Street.
The subsidiary of Regus is taking the entire fifth floor of 25,246 square feet.
Richard Rosenhaus of Rosenhaus Real Estate represented the tenant in the long-term deal.
The Rodney Corp. ownership had an asking rent of $59 per foot and was represented by Robert A.B. Baraf, Mark Mandell and Ethan Silverstein of Cushman & Wakefield.
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Contemporary art-photo store LUMAS Galleries is taking a spot on the Upper East Side. The new 1,040 square-foot store at 1094-1112 Madison Ave. between East 82nd and 83rd streets was previously occupied by City Market Café.
Faith Hope Consolo and Joseph Aquino of Douglas Elliman represented the gallery, which already has a bright and airy space on West Broadway in SoHo.
Jill Lovatt of Massey Knakal repped the building owners in the uptown 10-year deal that had an asking rent of $525 per square foot.
LUMAS sells limited editions of hand-signed original art photographs. We were floored by the wall-sized works when we wandered in over the summer.
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Sparkling crystal shop Swarovski has signed a 2,500 square-foot lease on the ground floor of 490 Fulton St. in downtown Brooklyn.
Robert Cohen of RKF represented the retailer in what will be its first boutique in the borough.
Stanley Chera’s Crown Acquisitions and a Perella Weinberg Partners fund were represented in house by Isaac Chera. The asking rent was $300 per square foot.
Neighboring retailers in the five-story building include Express, Raymour & Flanigan and Seattle’s Best Coffee, while Planet Fitness will open later this month.
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Issac’s brother, Haim Chera, spoke about the family company at last week’s Young Mens’/Women’s Real Estate Association lunch in Midtown.
Chera advised the audience to be persistent in their real estate ventures. Along with taking four years to hammer out a joint venture deal with the Onassis Foundation for the retail at Olympic Tower — for which they initially had to learn about the oil-tanker business — he recalled his pursuit of clothing retailer Zara, a subsidiary of Inditex Group.
Chera believed that Zara, then in a small space on Fifth Avenue across from Chera’s Crown Acquisition family offices, would be better served in a larger space at the family’s retail condo at 666 Fifth Ave., where the family is partners with the Carlyle Group and Kushner Cos.
After he finally won an audience with Amancio Ortega, Spain’s richest man and CEO of Inditex, owner of Zara, Chera told him of traveling the world and observing that Zara was the biggest store on every major shopping street.
“But there is nothing on Fifth Avenue,” he told Ortega.
“What do you mean?” said the CEO, who grew angry. “We have a shop at 689 Fifth Ave.!”
“You mean that bodega?” responded Chera, who was dismissed as “very arrogant,” booted from Ortega’s offices and told never to return.
A year later, executives from the investment arm of Inditex were being shown some of the occupied 666 Fifth retail condos when they asked about a different vacant space.
Eventually, Inditex bought the 38,750 square-foot store for $324 million and installed Zara.
Ortega also reconciled with Chera.
The lesson from the Zara episode?
“Sometimes you have to be bold.”