THE bitter war between the Cipriani organization and its landlord at 200 Fifth Ave. is over.
Ending a year of litigation and public mudslinging, the owners of the former Toy Building on Madison Square Park and the Ciprianis have “amicably” agreed that the high-end caterer will end its lease there on Jan. 31, 2009 – years before its scheduled expiration.
The mostly confidential settlement in Manhattan Supreme Court brings to an end a bitter dispute that started last summer, when L&L Holding Co. tried to evict Giuseppe Cipriani‘s much-in-the-news company.
The mutual decision to end Cipriani’s lease will let L&L, headed by Chairman David W. Levinson, complete interior renovations and retail repositioning at the building.
It simultaneously allows Cipriani to focus on “identifying new projects in the city” consistent “with the company’s portfolio of historical landmark properties,” according to a joint announcement to be released today.
L&L is converting 200 Fifth Ave., between 23rd and 24th streets, into a first-class office address and recently signed advertising giant Grey Group as its anchor tenant. The building also has about 50,000 square feet of retail space, most of it vacant.
Last year, L&L tried to boot Cipriani over its indictment for tax fraud, which resulted in Giuseppe and his father, Arrigo, agreeing to pay $10 million to settle the charges.
The Ciprianis, in turn, sued L&L for $20 million, claiming the case was irrelevant to its 200 Fifth Ave. tenancy and that the landlord was “maliciously and wrongly” interfering with the company’s use of the premises.
The Cipriani space has about 15,000 square feet.
With the space freed up, L&L is expected to begin aggressively marketing it as a first-class restaurant destination, possibly in combination with the retail space.
Reps for L&L and attorneys for Cipriani declined comment.
Grubb & Ellis has been tapped to market 140,000 square feet of office space at 7 World Trade Center, which ABN Amro has put up for sublease.
The Dutch bank, which was swallowed up by Royal Bank of Scotland not long after it signed the lease with developer Larry Silverstein, has floors 30-33 in the skyscraper across the street from Ground Zero.
When ABN Amro signed the lease in late 2006, it was considered an affirmation of the downtown market’s resilience.
The bank planned to move employees to the gleaming new skyscraper from locations in Midtown and Jersey City.
The lease brought occupancy above 1million square feet in the 1.6 million square-foot tower.
However, ABN Amro never actually moved in after doing some preliminary infrastructure work.
“Royal Bank of Scotland, which has its headquarters in Stamford, Conn., didn’t want the space downtown, and it’s been empty all along,” said an insider.
The ABN Amro availability means that 14 floors of the 52-floor tower are on the market.
Silverstein is still marketing 10 floors, including the top five, and has recently raised the asking rent to more than $75 a square foot.
Grubb & Ellis declined comment on how much the ABN Amro space was asking. Silverstein reps had no comment.
The untimely death of Terry Spillane at 52 has saddened all who knew Cushman & Wakefield’s longtime director of media relations. In an often cutthroat business, Spillane was known for his gentlemanly style.
Cushman CEO Bruce Mosler praised him for the “integrity and trustworthiness he communicated every day.”
Spillane, who started as a sports writer at The Post, managed the firm’s strategic media relationships for two decades and more recently served as international liaison for corporate communications in New York.