Business

UNION SQ. GETS MEX EATERY

UNION Square is getting a Chipotle Mexican Grill in the Zeckendorf Towers, on the northwest corner of Irving Place and 14th Street.

The 2,000 square foot space was previously occupied by a greeting card shop and is down the street from the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza.

Jeffrey Roseman of Newmark Knight Frank represented the spicy nationwide eatery, while Fred Posniak of W&M Properties worked in-house for the owner.

The asking rent was $250 a square foot and Chipotle will begin its build-out on July 1 with an expected opening later this summer.

“Chipotle is doing well and their model is still good,” said Roseman. “They are fairly priced and people can eat it for lunch or dinner. Union Square is still buzzing and is a hot market.”

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When Boston Properties bought the GM Building last year, its president, Doug Linde, made noises about buying out under-market leases, including that of its venerable anchor retailer FAO Schwarz.

Now we hear the FAO space is being quietly marketed by Boston Property’s agent, C. Bradley Mendelson of Cushman & Wakefield. At the same time, FAO seems to be quietly shopping for digs smaller than the massive space it now occupies.

There are reports that FAO pays just over $70 a foot for half of its 66,465 feet spread across three levels, but even in today’s sour economy ground-floor retail rents can go for 20 times what FAO is supposedly paying.

According to the Real Estate Board of New York, retail rents in that area of Madison Avenue are $939 a foot, down 14 percent since last spring. Along Fifth Avenue, average retail rents run $1,531 a foot, down 17 percent.

The toy company would confirm only that it rents 63,000 feet. Its lease ends in 2012.

At a conference last June, Linde dismissed the value of the FAO lease by saying it “ultimately will probably not be the most economically viable potential tenant we have for that space over time.”

When Donald J. Trump and Conseco owned the GM Building 10 years ago, they wanted to convert it into commercial condominiums. At that time the store measured at 70,355 feet and would have cost $150.46 million, or $2,138 a foot. The building’s sell-out price was pegged at $2.25 billion — a price we called “hefty” at the time.

Last year, Boston Properties paid $2.8 billion for the tower.

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When the going gets tough, the tough buy a new lipstick.

At least that’s what European cosmetics retailer Inglot is betting after leasing its first US store at 1592 Broadway at W. 48th St. in Times Square, also known as 2 Times Square. The 692 square foot location was rented for 10 years.

David Tricarico and Devon McBride of Cushman & Wakefield scouted locations for the retailer, while Fred Rosenberg was the in-house representation for Sherwood Equities, the owner.

Area rents run between $400 to $500 a foot.

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The building that housed the Upstage studio and club in Asbury Park, NJ, where Bruce Springsteen and other Jersey rockers performed, is coming to auction on June 18.

Eric Kaufman of Symphony Property Auctions said the three-story building at 700 Cookman Ave. was the epicenter of the late-night Jersey scene. “After they left the Stone Pony, they would come here to jam till 5 a.m.,” he said.

The now-vacant property on the corner of Bond Street has tin ceilings and an 18-foot high first floor that earlier housed a Thom McAn shoe store.

The Green Mermaid Café’s Day-Glo murals are still visible on the sec ond floor walls, while the Upstage rocked the third.

“It would do well as a restau rant with residen tial lofts or even another rehearsal studio above,” said Kaufman, who said there is “an unpublished minimum reserve.” lois.weiss@nypost.com