Manhattan’s Auto Row may be getting another ritzy car dealership building — but this one will be on 12th Avenue.
The red banner on the top of the two-story FedEx building at 660 12th Ave. that proclaims, “Build on this roof” is now faded like a well-worn T-shirt, but it finally has gotten results.
TF Cornerstone’s Elghanayan brothers — Frederick and K. Thomas along with Henry before he split off and kept the Rockrose name — went through years of pre-development work on this block that included incorporating several parcels into one zoning lot.
They also developed the FedEx facility between West 48th and 49th streets, just north of the Intrepid Air & Space Museum. While companies previously kicked the modern glass and steel façade, it never attracted retailers or any of the possible uses the brothers studied for the 300,000 square feet available on the top of the current 150,000-square-foot building, which ranged from data storage to movie making.
Now, Bay Ridge Auto Group, which owns the Toyota, Infiniti, Nissan and Acura dealerships, is preparing to develop a new building for its Toyota dealership — on the roof.
A spokeswoman for TF Cornerstone confirmed, “TF Cornerstone has a long-term lease with FedEx which is still in effect, and Toyota is planning on constructing a new facility above the FedEx unit.”
Bay Ridge, at the end of last year, also purchased the rear end of the block at 677-681 11th Ave. from TF Cornerstone for $16,601,032, and signed a new zoning agreement that states the brothers will still have at least 140,000 square feet left to develop, while Bay Ridge will use roughly 300,000 square feet for its new facility.
Just one block south at West 47th Street, Bay Ridge owns the current six-story 75,000-square-foot Toyota dealership at 645-651 11th Ave. that was cobbled together from an old storage facility. It also bought its 50,207 square-foot Nissan dealership building at the end of 2011 for $27.75 million
In June 2011, the city rezoned the west side of 11th Avenue to provide space for auto dealerships and trucking companies to expand.
Nearby, Volkswagen Group of America has a new 260,000 square-foot dealership at 798 11th Ave. that also houses Audi.
Mercedes also set a new auto dealer bar when it opened its 330,000-square-foot showplace under the residential complex Mercedes House between 53rd and 54th streets.
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City sources tell us there are just over 1,000 electric vehicles registered in New York City — with most of them Chevy Volts — and an expanding group of expensive Teslas.
A bunch of Westchester and Connecticut Tesla owners drive them into the city and back each day, and after our own test drive last week, I can see why.
They are fun to drive, with superfast acceleration to get you safely in and out of traffic and away from darting bicycles and clueless, cellphone-entranced pedestrians.
The smooth drive also shielded us from the accordion-like city roads that usually make us hang onto the wheel like we are riding a mechanical bull.
To charge more vehicles and help grow a fleet of electric taxis, the city is seeking well-located street spots to add charging stations, while building owners are looking at including them in garages and parking lots.
At a test-drive event last week at the Tesla showroom in Chelsea by the High Line that was organized by environmental consultants, CodeGreen, facility managers from Monday Properties, Blackstone, Equity Office, Fisher Brothers, RXR and other companies checked out the cars and learned more about getting plugged in.
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We’ve also learned that Michael Shah’s DelShah Capital is in contract to buy 100-102 Christopher St. in the West Village for about $27 million. This is roughly $1,235 per square foot for the white-brick building’s 21,849 square feet.
The five-story property has 37 apartments. Two are now vacant and several others are at market rent with one two-bedroom listed for $5,250. There are also three retail stores now occupied by Rag & Bone with many years to go on their leases. Current area retail rents are $200 to $250 per square foot.
The sellers are Jeffrey Kaye and Robert Morgenstern of Stone Street Properties, who bought it in a portfolio in 2011 for $16,459,740 and renamed it The Charlotte. They now own about 30 buildings in various neighborhoods and could not be reached for comment.
DelShah did not return calls either but our source suggested that Shah went after the property, which is trading without brokers, as its retail will someday benefit from the bounce in nearby Bleecker Street rents that are closer to $400 and $450 per square foot.
Upgrades to the lobby, boiler and common hallways should also benefit both current and new tenants.
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The Soho space that is being vacated by Treasure & Bond, Nordstrom’s charitable venture, is now for rent through a group led by James Downey at Cushman & Wakefield. It is owned by the Spitzer family and city comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer signed the paperwork in February for $25.5 million.
The store has 5,900 square feet on the ground and 5,300 square feet on the second floor. The asking rent of $175 on the ground and $70 for the second level is lower because of its location between Broome and Grand streets, which is yet to attract more luxury brands.
A 1,500-square-foot terrace on the second floor was the site of Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of the upcoming Nordstrom’s at 225 W. 57th St. that is being developed at the base of a tower by Gary Barnett’s Extell Development. As The Post first reported on our website on Tuesday, Nordstrom just paid $102.5 million for the land “under a plane,” and will pay more to Barnett for the completed seven-level store.