Real Estate

Boston tower lands anchor

Law firm Morrison Foerster has just signed a lease for 180,000 square-feet to become the anchor tenant for Boston Properties’ upcoming tower at 250 W. 55 St.

The firm is leasing seven floors from 17 to 23 plus the cellar. It also has the option to add another 50,000 square-feet prior to completion in 2014 along with more space in the future.

Boston Properties now says it will resume construction this fall on the 39-story, 1-million-square-foot building designed by Skidmore Ownings Merrill.

On March 8, we exclusively reported that the law firm had signed a letter of intent to move to the new tower, breathing life into the stalled development.

CB Richard Ellis represented both sides of the deal.

*

The Port Authority documents available on the city’s Finance Department website for 1 World Trade Center have been scrubbed of the leasing diagrams.

As I exclusively reported with Post colleague Chuck Bennett last week, the diagrams showed the main supporting columns, placement of the PATH trains and other engineering details that might be useful to terrorists.

In an e-mail, a spokesman for the Finance Dept. said Commissioner David Frankel had the diagrams removed.

*

With investors from around the world clamoring to get a piece of any city bricks, the prewar trophy at 315 Park Ave. South is just hitting the sales block for about $1,000 a foot.

The building is home to financial giant Credit Suisse, with about 300,000 square-feet, and Leucadia National, a diversified holding company. A Staples hosts the retail piece.

Owner Craig Nassi of BCN Development has hired the Carlton Group to market the property as either a full sale or a joint venture that would recapitalize the building for around $350 million.

Nassi would not discuss possible pricing but said, “Over the last three weeks, I’ve been getting a lot of calls from Asian groups and Middle East groups that want to buy the building or invest with me. I realized it’s time to hire an outside group to field the offers.”

Any pricing would be based on its income stream and likely go for a low capitalization rate. Nassi bought the building four years ago and added $10 million in capital improvements, including two contemporary lobbies, windows, 10 new elevators and a new roof.

*

An opportunity is now available to buy a 43-key, 12-story new hotel at 5 Allen St. on the Lower East Side for $19 million. The select service hotel will be completely finished for the buyer and comes with a cancelable management agreement with Howard Johnson.

Eastern Consolidated’s team of Marion Jones, David Schechtman, Philip Huang and Peter Hauspurg, chairman and CEO, are marketing the building for the developers who are already seeking a 1031 tax-free exchange replacement property for the proceeds.

*

Victorinox will move to 3,000 square-feet at 114 Wooster St. when the current lease at 136 Prince St. ends in June.

The new store is in a classic SoHo property with 25-feet of cast-iron façade. The new prototype features cutlery as well as Swiss Army knives.

The asking rent in the co-op building was around $225 a foot.

The company’s exclusive broker, Michael Glanz berg of Sinvin Real Estate, anticipates adding two additional Manhattan locations. He recently guided them in leasing new stores in Los Angeles, Boston and Toronto. Lois@BetweenTheBricks.com