There are now three competitors for 1412 Broadway, which is being marketed directly by owner Norman Sturner‘s Murray Hill Properties.
“We’re getting multiple calls and this is being negotiated privately and quietly, one buyer at a time,” admitted Sturner. “One of the contingencies is that we prefer to remain as manager and lessor.”
Real-estate sources have identified one of the potential buyers as the Harbor Group International. The Israeli investors are based in Norfolk, Va., and have a local office here.
They made their first city buy last year by purchasing 4 New York Plaza, and quickly leased some of the vacant space to the Daily News for its West 33rd Street headquarters.
A Jones Lang LaSalle brokerage team had been marketing the 400,000-square-foot Fashion Gallery Building earlier this year when the team was still at Cushman & Wakefield and had expected to achieve a price around $160 million.
Stay tuned.
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Cool Canadian retailer Aritzia signed a sublease for the 15,000 square foot Gap space in SoHo at 524 Broadway on the southeast corner of Spring Street. The former two-level Banana Republic sublease goes into 2014.
We expect the tenant is now in negotiations with building owner Rodney Propp to obtain a lease extension, but his office did not return a request for comment.
Ariel Schuster of Robert K. Futterman reps the Banana Republic/Gap while his RKF colleague, Karen Bellantoni brought in Aritzia. Neither returned calls for comment. The building is also the home of Keith McNally‘s Balthazar restaurant and Scholastic magazine.
Vancouver-based Aritzia designed all the medal ribbons and other accessories for last winter’s Olympic Games.
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London-based Vision Capital will open its first offices in New York on the entire 6,000-square-foot 14th floor of the McKim Mead & White-designed building at 681 Fifth Ave. Tommy Hilfiger has the 22,000-square-foot flagship on the bottom, while the 12th floor was leased earlier this year to Global Thematic Partners — a spinoff of Deutsche Bank.
Studley’s David Ducek brought in Vision, while Mitchell Konsker leads the Cushman & Wakefield team for owner Robert Siegel‘s Metropole Realty Advisors. The asking rent was in the mid-$80s a square foot.
“Because of the uniqueness of our building we are joining the GMs of the world,” said Siegel. “We have a concierge and will soon have a full-time doorman. They will both be in morning suits.”
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The Shubert Organization’s ticketing division, including Telecharge.com, is growing and charging its way into 20,738 square feet on the 11th floor of 520 Eighth Ave. from a smaller office on W. 42nd St. The asking rent: $32 a foot.
Newmark Knight Frank’s Brian Waterman and Lance Korman represented The Shubert Organization, while the 25-story Newmark Holdings property was represented by NKF’s Eric Gural, Brian Steinwurtzel and Matthew Mandell. The 755,000-square-foot renovated building has modern building systems, new elevators and security on the edge of the Theater District and is now 100-percent leased.
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The Consulate General of Honduras signed a lease for a retail space to help its citizens with visas, passports and other government-related matters. Honduras will be moving to a two-level space of 3,500 square feet at 255 West 36th St.
There is 2,000 square feet on the ground plus a 1,500-square-foot mezzanine. The asking rent for the ground floor was $60 a square foot.
The Consulate is currently on the third floor of 144 W. 37th St., and its broker, Sasha Majerovsky of Citywide Properties, said the street-level space was better suited for their work.
“This is a good time to take advantage of some really great retail opportunities,” she noted. Juda Srour of Atlas Ventures represented the building owners in-house.
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The Poulakakos family is bringing its newest concept, Harry’s Italian, to 900 square feet in the concourse at 30 Rock, where it will open in time for Christmas, right across from chocolatier Jacques Torres. Sources said the asking rent was in the mid-$200s per foot.
Darrell Ru bens and Annie Shinn of Winick Realty Group repped Harry’s Italian in this transaction directly with the in-house team at Tishman Speyer.
The Italian concept is already open at Two Gold Street, and the family also operates Ulysses, Harry’s Cafe & Steak, Vintry Wine & Whiskey and Financier Patisserie.
Lois@BetweenTheBricks.com