Real Estate

E. Harlem cancer fighter

The city’s first proton-based cancer-busting machine is now targeted on East Harlem.

A consortium of area hospitals had been trying to get the machine in at a series of city sites since 2010 — first on West 57th Street with Avalon Bay Communities, and then last year with Related Cos. for the base of a proposed tower on East 92nd Street.

When those deals fell through, the group checked out Vornado Realty Trust’s L-shaped office tower site in Harlem, but worried it would not work so well as better tumor fighting results with more treating rooms are achieved by running the protons in a straight line.

“They need a rectangle of about 40,000 square feet,” explained Mark Weiss of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, the consortium’s broker.

The state’s Dept. of Health already has approvals in place for the giant contraption — wherever it lands. Now, patients have to travel to Boston or Philadelphia to get the focused radiation treatment.

The New York Proton Center partnership, led by 21st Century Oncology, based in Ft. Myers, Fla., includes the local hospitals Memorial Sloan Kettering, NYU, Mt. Sinai, Montefiore Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners, which encompasses Beth Israel, St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals.

Now, the group is focused on a portion of car dealer Potamkin’s full block at 2485 Second Ave. between East 127th and 128th streets that runs to Third Avenue.

“There is an executed letter of intent,” said Weiss, who has represented several hospitals in numerous lease transactions.

According to Norton Travis, the executive vice president and general counsel of 21st Century Oncology, a 120,000-square-foot building designed by VOA would be developed on the site under a long-term ground lease.

“We are in earnest discussions and optimistic this will be our site and working together as to what will be a lease,” said Travis. “We decided it would be the absolute best for the consortium and moreover for the City of New York to locate this facility and bring cutting-edge science and jobs to Harlem.”

The facility is expected to open in 2015 or 2016 and will be able to treat 1,300 to 1,400 people per year, Travis said, far fewer than the number of expected prospective patients.

Therefore, children are expected to be given priority because growing vital organs can be spared the most harm by the focused radiation.

Currently, Potamkin operates a Hyundai and Mitsubishi dealership in one building on the site and leases out another — one that used to house a GM dealership for Chevrolets and Cadillacs.

The group is seeking to secure the approximately two thirds of the block that does not include the former GM/Cadillac site, and will also be able to have plenty of parking for patients.

Alan Potamkin did not return a call or e-mail and his broker, James Emden of Colliers International, declined to comment.

It was just last August that Potamkin told us he was open to a sale, lease or adaptive reuse of the site. Stay tuned.

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Social media leveraging company Likeable liked its 7th floor space at 240 W. 37th St. so much it has now leased the remaining 5,650 square feet to inhabit the entire 11,650 square-foot floor.

Likeable first located here from smaller sublease space elsewhere back in December, and was represented in the deals by Scott Bloom and Susann Eaton of Bloom Real Estate. CBRE’s Joseph Mangiacotti represented the ownership that includes Isaac Chetrit.

The building’s asking rent is in the mid-$30s, a total bargain by today’s Midtown standards.

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McDonald’s will soon open its new earth-toned and Starbucks-like design concept at a new location on West 125th Street. The former four-story Verizon office building at 148 W. 125th St. was sold to The Jackson Group in October 2010 and has since been gut renovated into an upscale retail and office building.

Once its space is built out, McDonald’s will be moving into 2,500 square feet on the ground floor in a deal that includes at 1,500 square-foot basement. It will also have large signage on the side and front of the pretty building.

McDonald’s was represented by Harold Sherr of HSRE Real Estate while The Jackson Group ownership was represented in-house by Jonathan Nachmani. The ground floor asking rent was $150 per square foot and Orva Shoes also leased retail space in the building.

Upstairs, the 4,500-square-foot floors are available for offices with an asking price of $35 per square foot.

The fast-food chain closed its 215 W. 125th St. branch but is still open at 145 W. 125th St. and 354 E. 125th St.

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JPMorgan Chase has expanded downward into 3,000 square feet on the ground floor of One Grand Central Place, where it will construct a private client concierge service entrance. The bank now leases 18,683 square feet on the second floor.

The location opposite Vanderbilt Avenue and Grand Central Terminal is adjacent to a Charles Schwab & Co. center and a Bank of America branch.

Gene Spiegelman and Michael O’Neal of Cushman & Wakefield represented Chase while the W&H Properties-owned building, which had an asking rent of $325 per square foot for the space, was repped by Jared Lack of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.