Lois Weiss
BETWEEN THE BRICKS
The long vacant Disney store at 711 Fifth Ave. may soon be filled with Ralph Lauren clothing.
Several sources report a deal is being negotiated to bring RL’s preppie and all-American looks into 35,000 square feet at the Coca-Cola Building, named for the all-American beverage company that owns it.
Most of the 65,000 square feet that was the Disney Store — before Mickey decamped for Times Square — remains vacant. The Breguet shop of 3,000 square feet uses the old Mickey-and-friends character awning, which needed a variance to be installed.
Neither Lauren, which owns and rents along Madison Avenue and has other spaces in SoHo and on Bleecker Street, nor Jones Lang LaSalle’s spokespeople commented prior to press time.
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Bids were due yesterday for the Sony Building at 550 Madison. Those previously outed and likely to have put in bids include the Rockefeller Group, owned by Mitsubishi Estate; Mitsui Fudosan America; Vornado Realty Trust; Boston Properties; Harry Macklowe; and Steven Witkoff; along with investors from the Middle East and Israel, China, Russia and Europe.
Locals, REITs, insurance companies and groups were teaming with capital from all over the world for the rare offering of a Class A Midtown office building, especially now that capital-gains rates are set for the moment. Douglas Harmon and his Eastdil Secured team are not responding to requests for comment on the bidders or bid amounts.
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Michael Kors Holdings has leased 15,000 square feet at 520 Broadway in SoHo between Spring and Broome streets. When it opens, sources said, the three-level store plus storage will become the brand’s new SoHo flagship. Right now, there is a Michael Kors store around the corner at 101 Spring St.
Gary Dana, Rick Dana and Adam Kramer of Dana Commercial Group at Douglas Elliman represented the tenant in the 15-year lease.
The space has 4,500 square feet on the ground and 5,000 square feet each on the second floor and concourse, along with underground storage of 2,500 square feet.
“We have been looking for them for a year in SoHo, and they wanted a big splash,” said Gary Dana.
Rodney Prop, chairman of Tall Prop Equities, negotiated on behalf of the Prop family partnership but declined comment.
Ground-floor rents in the area are now pushing into the $700s a square foot for midblock space. The entire space, however, had an asking rent on Costar of $4.556 million per year.
Construction will begin after the current tenant, Club Monaco, vacates in June.
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Douglas Durst has paid $18 million for a down-on-its-luck Times Square-area hotel right next to the fancy Lambs Club on a block where he already owns several parcels and is cobbling together a development site.
“It’s for the fifth generation,” he joked the other day of the future development, noting that the oldest person in the fifth generation is now 7 years old.
Durst’s new addition, the Crown Hotel at 136 W. 44th St., is rented to an agency funded by the city that has a year left on its lease.
Knowledge of Durst’s interest in the block made the transfer a fast off-market deal handled by Neal Sroka, Vincent Santoro and Suzan Kremer of Douglas Elliman on behalf of seller Steven Silberberg.
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A boutique office building at 551 Madison on the northeast corner of 55th Street was just purchased for north of $125 million by an institutional investor advised by Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors, sources say.
Darcy Stacom, Bill Shanahan, and Paul Gillen of CBRE advised sellers LaSalle Investment Management. CBRE declined comment.
The 17-story property of 150,000 square feet has Lacoste as its largest tenant.
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In another year-end deal, the Media Arts building at 311 W. 43rd St., west of Times Square in Clinton, where Hakkasan NY is located, was just sold to Atlas Capital’s Jeff Goldberger and Andy Cohen for $62.4 million.
Brian Ezratty and Peter Hauspurg of Eastern Consolidated represented the sellers, Richard Berry and Tony Zunino of Zuberry Associates, while Ezatty procured the buyers.
“We made a quick deal, but it was a securitized loan and they had to get it done in 45 days,” said Ezratty. He credited Cohen’s experience for the fast lender action.
The engineering firm Cooper Robertson is a tenant here.
Atlas is also part of the investment group that recently bought the St. Johns Center, the East Gate Tower Hotel on 39th Street and a Broome Street development site.
Lois@Betweenthebricks.com
Ex-Disney site in play for RL
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Ex-Disney site in play for RL
