Celebrity lawyer and television personality Mark Geragos, who paid $8 million for a 12,960-square-foot commercial building at 256 Fifth Ave. between 28th and 29th streets, is planning to put a restaurant on the ground floor of the 119-year-old building.
Geragos — who has worked for Michael Jackson, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and Chris Brown — has hired Crown Design’s Michael Santora to renovate the building, which can be expanded to 24,670 square feet and comes with an additional 11,700 square feet of available air rights.
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The Pinkberry that opens this fall at 117 Front St. will be the company’s second Brooklyn store and continues the hipster-to-hotspot gentrification of DUMBO.
The 7-year-old fro-yo chain will take 1,030 square feet in the 55 Washington Building, which is also home to successful online shopping site Etsy. Pinkberry signed a 10-year lease with two options at five years each.
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SIGHTINGS: Kathleen Turner and Sandra Bernhard turning heads as they left their tables to chat in the middle of the dining room at Alison Eighteen. Turner, whose group included Michael Keegan, president of People for the American Way, was en route to Washington DC, for the play “Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins,” in which Turner plays the outspoken liberal columnist.
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WE HEAR . . . that New York chefs tipping their “caps” for September’s National Mushroom Month include Thai Iron Chef Ian Chalermkittichai, who created “Ya-yai” Mushroom Soup — oyster mushroom soup with tofu, eggs and meatballs — at Ember Room . . . that Food Network star chef Giada De Laurentiis was spotted at the Warren-Tricomi salon in East Hampton.