Food & Drink

Prime NYC potential restaurant location sells for nearly $7M

There’s a new restaurant opportunity in the Theater District.

City Knickerbocker Lighting just sold 781 Eighth Ave. for $6.9 million. The four-story commercial building has 9,000 square feet of leasable space.

The seller had occupied the building for 50 years.

The building’s location makes it ideal for a restaurant or cafe on the ground floor with offices on top, said Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Retail’s Jonathan Krivine, who with Dennis Karr, arranged the sale on behalf of the owner with Lewis A. Kerman, president of LK Allen Inc. Brandon Eisenman of RKF represented the buyer, 781 Eighth Avenue Owner, LLC.

Panera Bread, a bakery chain that serves sandwiches, salads and pastas, is opening across the street from Madison Square Park. The 3,300 square-foot space on East 23rd Street between Park and Madison avenues could become an alternative to the Shake Shack, said NGKF broker Jeffrey Roseman, who represented landlord SL Green.

Rival chow chain Pret a Manger will relocate to 265 Madison Ave., at the corner of 39th Street, from No. 285, which is being renovated by Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty, which bought it for $190 million. NGKF repped the landlord, Skyline Developers.

OPENINGS: La Cenita (little dinner in Spanish) in the former Abe & Arthur space in the Meatpacking District at 409 W. 14th St., officially opens Tuesday with small, shareable plates by executive chef Akhtar Nawab, formerly EC of La Esquina.

WE HEAR … that celebrity chef Daniel Boulud’s Midtown db bistro moderne debuted a redesigned space by Jeffrey Beers International and a new menu by chef Jim Burke in collaboration with Boulud. The menu features cuisine classique, interpretations of Boulud’s favorite classic bistro dishes and seasonal cuisine du marché dishes … that the Meatball Shop’s recently opened fifth location, at 1462 Second Ave., is launching a “healthy” meatball in connection with Equinox.