Two of Midtown’s greatest blocks, West 57th Street between Fifth and Seventh avenues, stand at the cusp of sweeping change.
Between Fifth and Sixth avenues, Gary Barnett’s Extell, Sheldon Solow and Vornado are playing an intricate chess game of strategic acquisition with an eye on major new development.
One block west, Extell’s mighty One57 is rising. Three major new hotels are under construction, including the arresting Roman & Williams-designed Willow and the Park Hyatt inside One57 itself. In addition, a 55-story, “shard”-shaped luxury condo tower is planned at 107 W. 57th, now an empty pit.
It’s in the context of imminent dramatic renewal on all sides that the owners of 57 W. 57th St., at the northeast corner of Sixth and 57th, have been gradually upgrading and repositioning the once dowdy 170,000-square-foot prewar building.
Next year, when Fourth Wall Restaurants opens its 200-seat steakhouse, Quality Italian, there, it will mark a watershed for the property owned by the family of Colliers International Tri-State President Michael T. Cohen.
They’ve gradually repositioned the former Medical Arts Building — a small hospital that long hid in plain sight — for modern office and retail use.
Cohen said that with a lease for a big Staples store expiring last summer, he thought, “Is this a location for another high-volume retailer?”
With the corner’s heavy foot traffic, finding new retail tenants wasn’t difficult. But Cohen looked at thriving Nobu 57 and Rue 57 across the street and concluded, “This is a restaurant location.”
He says that for years, “Much to my disappointment, when I said ‘the Staples building,’ people lost interest.” He decided the retail was the “overwhelming branding” of the building, and saw a once-in-a-generation opportunity to recast it.
Cohen and Ed Brock negotiated for the ownership. Quality Italian will have 11,300 square feet, with the entrance on Sixth Avenue and most of the floor space on the second floor — highly visible through large windows on both sides.
The 20-year lease is valued at around $20 million. But it’s more complicated than that as the landlord will share revenue in exchange for a “capital contribution,” common for large restaurants.
Fourth Wall, owned by father and son Michael Stillman and Alan Stillman, also controls Smith & Wollensky, Hurricane Club and Quality Meats.
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The office tower now known as 3 Columbus Circle is having the last laugh after a rocky transition a few years ago.
Developer Joseph Moinian nearly lost the nearly 900,000-square-foot office and retail tower after he re-clad the brick-fronted former Newsweek building in curtain-wall glass.
Related Cos. Chairman Stephen M. Ross so hated the sight of it from his office at Time Warner Center, he tried to get control of it so he could tear it down.
But it’s been a different story since SL Green swooped in to partner with Moinian and manage the property. Now, Young & Rubicam — which made its headquarters there last year in a 340,000-square-foot purchase and rental deal — is already expanding.
Brand Union, a division of Y&R parent WPP, just took an additional 34,000 square feet, a whole floor. The asking rent was $70 a square foot, said SLG Vice-President Steven Durels.
CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe and Greg Tosko represented the tenant and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Brian Waterman and Scott Klau acted for the landlord.
Durels said the tower now has only 176,000 square feet of office space available, of which 60,000 feet are in negotiation.
Far from regarding 3 Columbus Circle as an ugly duckling, Durels said new lighting is being installed on the exterior to “show all angles of the building.”
Meanwhile, SLG appears poised for action on the retail floors, where Daffy’s recently closed. The move-out freed up enough space to offer a 36,000-square-foot block on two levels.
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Columbus Avenue’s retail locomotive continues to chug along. The latest arrival is fashion jeweler Alexis Bittar, which claimed the former Supercuts space at 410 Columbus between 79th and 80th streets.
Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Faith Hope Consolo and Joseph Aquino arranged the lease. According to Consolo, the landlord at first asked for $300 per square foot, but a bidding war broke out and Alexis Bittar ended up nailing the location for $330 a foot — believed to be the highest retail rent ever on Columbus Avenue north of 79th Street.
Consolo noted that the jeweler already has boutiques on Madison Avenue and in SoHo and the West Village, so the thriving Columbus corridor was its next logical step.
Of course, the avenue’s long-term outlook is in flux due to recent retail rezoning limiting new storefronts to 25 feet in width, among other rules — but Consolo and other brokers say the effect won’t be felt for a year or more.