Real Estate

Y&R’s deal starts at $144M

That was a whale of a deal SL Green pulled off with ad giant Young & Rubicam Group at 3 Columbus Circle.

Although terms of the total 340,000-square-foot commitment were not released yesterday, we’ve learned Y&R is paying about $144 million for the condo portion — 214,372 square feet on floors 3 to 8 of the reclad, upgraded tower.

That’s around $671 per square foot — remarkable for a building that was near-vacant and in peril of foreclosure last year when SLG rescued landlord Joseph Moinian from a takeover attempt by Related Cos.’ Stephen Ross (Moinian remains a partner).

Meanwhile, we’re told, the asking rent on Y&R’s leased space — nearly 125,000 feet on floors 9, 10, 18 and 19 — ran from $65 a square foot on the lower floors to $80 higher up.

Sources said the deal — first predicted by my colleague Lois Weiss in October — was immensely complicated. “For one thing, they had to create the legal structure for the condo before they could sell it,” an insider said.

In addition, SLG Vice President Steven Durels said yesterday the deal gives SLG an option to buy Y&R’s current headquarters, 258 Madison Ave., when the company moves. Y&R is part of WPP Group.

Y&R, represented by CB Richard Ellis’s Mary Ann Tighe and Gregory Tosko, beat out another suitor for 3 Columbus Circle at the last minute — ad agency Havas, which had a term sheet and was “days away from a lease,” a different source told us. (Newmark Knight Frank’s James Kuhn, Scott Klau and Brian Waterman repped the owners.)

It was the second time this fall that a Tighe-led team swooped in to upend a competing deal that appeared done. As Weiss reported last week, Tighe knocked Air Emirates out of the box at 1211 Sixth Ave., where News Corp. grabbed the former Charles Schwab retail unit on the plaza. (News Corp. owns The Post.)

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Speaking of Related and Columbus Circle, there’s more change in store than merely new tenants for the former Borders space on Time Warner Center’s second floor.

The Samsung Experience showroom on the third floor is also leaving in January, we’ve learned, presenting Ross and Related leasing wizard Kenneth Himmel with some interesting options.

Samsung’s 10,000 square feet are less talked about than its big sign overhanging the atrium lobby and customers at Bouchon Bakery. But in theory, they could be combined with the Borders space to create a duplex.

Meanwhile, we hear, Related has been looking at “different options” for certain parts of the retail mall’s four floors as 10-year leases signed when the project opened near expiration.

The “Retail Collection” has been a spectacular success, confounding detractors who said New Yorkers hate malls. The stores are said to be averaging more than $1,600 a square foot per year in sales and on track to eclipse $2,000 a foot next year.

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The owners and agents for 100 Broadway are crowing over three new leases and a renewal totalling nearly 80,000 square feet. CB Richard Ellis’s Paul Amrich, Scott Sloves and Patrick Dugan represented landlord Madison Capital in all the deals at the prewar property, which Madison wrested from Hiro Realty late last year.

The new arrivals are Bright Wire, Fensterstock & Partners and inMotion, while Southwest Securities renewed on 8,800 square feet. Asking rents were $37 a foot at the 400,000-square-foot tower, where about 65,000 feet of office space remain available.

Meanwhile, the New York Observer reported most of 100 Broadway’s retail space previously occupied by Borders (another casualty of the chain’s collapse) has been leased to Walgreens.

We can’t resist mentioning that Realty Check saw this one coming last July, when we didn’t have a fact to stand on.

In questioning a New York Times column that quoted downtown dealmakers who gushed that the space might draw a fashion tenant like H&M or Topshop, we wrote: “Based on recent trends, Walgreens might seem just as likely a candidate.”

We didn’t have a crystal ball, but merely common sense to ignore propaganda from retail brokers with their eyes only on commissions.

scuozzo@nypost.com