Real Estate

A downtown Morton’s

Morton’s The Steakhouse has signed a lease at 140 Washington St., which is in the base of the World Center Hotel at 130 Cedar Street, right opposite the World Trade Center.

The duplex space will have 2,125 square feet on the ground floor and 7,675 square feet in the lower level. According to public documents, the 15-year lease that was quietly signed this spring will also have a five-year renewal option.

“That’s exciting,” said Liz Berger, president of the Alliance for Downtown. “Tourists are extending their stay and eating and staying and shopping longer in Lower Manhattan.” And of course, there are office buildings and residential towers filled with people who like fine dining, too.

Morton’s has another New York location, at 551 Fifth Ave. — but days after being purchased by Landry’s in February, the Texas-based company shut the doors on Morton’s Brooklyn steakhouse on Adams Street.

No one returned calls or e-mails from either Landry’s or the hotel.

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The empty corner lot at 144 Spring St. at the southwest corner of Wooster Street that has been home to a ramshackle flea market for at least the last 20 years is trading this week for nearly $30 million, area sources said.

Ralph Bartel, the billionaire founder of Travelzoo and major investor in Lanvin and Devi Kroell, is buying the lot from an entity owned by Centaur Properties to erect a multilevel retail building for one of his brands.

The lot is diagonal to the Chanel store that recently expanded and renewed for another 10 years and is the last vacant mega corner in SoHo. The 100-foot by 20-foot lot can host five stories plus one below grade to make a 12,000 square-foot spread.

Michael Glanzberg and Christopher Owles, co-principals of Sinvin Real Estate, whose property listing shows drawings of a proposed building that includes a roof terrace, confirmed a sale is in progress and that they are representing both sides of the deal. They declined to comment further. None of the Travelzoo, Lanvin or Devi Kroell press reps returned messages.

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It can now be revealed that the new children’s store opening in Columbus Square on the Upper West Side will be called Rookie USA. The “game-changing” store will have 7,000 square feet on the ground and a 2,200 square-foot basement at 808 Columbus Avenue. A Winick Realty team reps the complex, and Winick’s Zach Mishaan brought in the new retailer.

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The Hines and Pacolet Milliken development venture has now formally leased the land under the up-going 7 Bryant Park office tower at West 40th Street and Sixth Avenue. Pacolet Milliken, the longtime owner of the site and at one time the tenant of its previous office structure, will retain the land while leasing it to the development venture at a price of $106,541,400. It is unclear if that is the rent for the next 152 years or merely a down payment. An e-mail and calls to Hines were unreturned.

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Sources tell us Jeff Sutton has just pocketed about $400 million after reworking the mortgage, mezzanine loans and ownership of his 717 Fifth Ave.’s 120,000-plus square-foot retail condo and fourth-floor offices.

To get to that point he bought out Hugo Boss and put in Armani, bought out Escada and moved them to the side street and installed Dolce & Gabbana on Fifth Avenue. Sutton did not respond to messages asking where he will now invest the funds. We tried.

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The original 36,000 square-foot H&M flagship US store at 640 Fifth Ave. on the northwest corner of West 51st Street is quietly being shopped for lease to other retailers by Vornado Realty Trust.

The cheap-chic fashion outlet has a cheap lease from the year 2000 that runs out at the end of Jan. 2014. The opportunity was revealed by retail broker Alan Schmerzler of Cushman & Wakefield during a press review of the second-quarter market yesterday at Michael’s in Midtown.

The H&M has a basement, ground, mezzanine and second floor, and the thinking by Vornado’s retail queen, Sherri White, is that to push the rents they may break up the space into something like three vertical town houses.

H&M will have to decide soon whether it wants to pay Vornado’s price or give up its lucrative spot in the best retail area of the city and second-priciest in the world.

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CBRE’s latest global luxury retail report for the first quarter of the year found the 49th to 57th Street Upper Fifth Avenue corridor is only the second-priciest in the world — with a top rent of $2,475 per square foot, compared to front-runner Hong Kong’s highest price of $3,864 per square foot.

Sydney was No. 3 at $1,112 per square foot, while Toyko ($1,025 per square foot) and London ($956 a square foot) finished No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.

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Along that same pricey Fifth Avenue swath at 2 E. 55th St., the St. Regis Hotel retail condo of about 24,700 square feet is also in play.

An offer from one “super-luxury” retailer reached $375 million, sources said — a whopping $15,182 per square foot — to buy and then control the space outright.

Owner Haim Chera of Crown Acquisitions admitted, “Where there is smoke, there is fire. We are being barraged with offers, but the partnership [that includes the Feil Organization and Lloyd Goldman] doesn’t know what it wants to do yet.”

The group bought the space in Nov. 2009 for $117 million and rents to stores that include Bottega Veneta, Pucci and De Beers.

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The online luxury virtual trunk show, Moda Operandi, leased 24,822 square feet on part of the 5th floor at 315 Hudson St. for its new headquarters. They will move from 72 Madison Ave. later this fall.

Brett Greenberg of Jack Resnick & Sons represented the building owner in the 10-year leasing transaction while Owen Hane of Cushman & Wakefield represented Moda Operandi.

Asking rents are in the $40s per square foot.