THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011
Sutton Loves Valentino Site
Sutton Loves Valentino Site, by Lois Weiss.
The steamrolling team of Jeff Sutton and SL Green Realty Corp. has just contracted to buy yet another high-profile fashion spot.
This one is the Valentino-occupied southeast corner of East 65th Street at 747 Madison. According to CoStar data, the store at the base of the Colony House residential building has 6,700 square feet on the first floor and a 3,100-square-foot lower level currently used for storage. Sources say the purchase price is close to $65 million.
The store has magnificent high ceilings due to an earlier transaction that carved an entire second-floor apartment into the retail space, thus attracting Valentino. But the 10-year-old Valentino lease is set to expire within the year, providing an opportunity to double the rent.
Brokers on the deal were Newmark Knight Frank's Jeffrey Roseman, Bobby Emden and Kenneth Zakin. The companies and brokers were either unreachable or declined comment.
The Sutton/SLG team has been on a city buying spree. Just last week, as The Post reported, retail maestro Sutton concluded a lease with Italian fashion powerhouse Dolce & Gabbana to move into 18,400 square feet at 717 Fifth Ave. now occupied by Escada, which will move into roughly 10,000 square feet in the same building along East 55th Street.
The D&G 15-year deal is worth just under $300 million, sources said.
Additionally, as we first reported, the joint venture is buying the TGIF building at 1552 Broadway in the middle of Times Square for a price in the mid-$130 million range, where it expects to attract another blockbuster tenant.
Meanwhile, in another retail condo deal, Joe Sitt's Thor Equities just sold a retail condo at 415 W. 13th St. in the Meatpacking District to a client of RREEF, the real-estate investment business of Deutsche Bank's Asset Management division, for $34 million.
The space, rented last fall to All Saints, totals 11,862 square feet on two levels. Sitt paid just $18.54 million for the condo in October, and RREEF is essentially buying the retail income stream.
Sitt reps declined comment, but RREEF confirmed the July 7 transaction, which employed no brokers.
We've learned that General Motors has hired the Boston capital markets group of Jones Lang LaSalle to sell its Sleepy Hollow site, dubbed Lighthouse Landing.
The 96.3 acres sprawl 2,200 feet along the Hudson River about a mile north of the Tappan Zee Bridge. About 45 acres will be set aside for parks and a continuous waterfront esplanade that accesses a historical lighthouse and other village land.
Sleepy Hollow trustees voted in June to permit a mix of 1,177 condo, townhouse and apartment units; 135,000 square feet of retail including a movie theater; 35,000 feet of offices; and a 140-room hotel, leading neighboring Tarrytown to file suit over future traffic.
According to the RFP, proposals to purchase and develop the site are due Friday, Sept. 2, at 3 p.m., with a developer to be selected by Nov. 1 and a closing by November next year. JLL and GM had no comment.
All developers will also have to get further approvals from me, as I live next door. (Wishful thinking!)
Getty Images signed a new 15-year lease for 82,844 square feet, which consists of one entire floor at One Hudson Square and 5,000 square feet in the basement.
Getty currently occupies the floor under an earlier, larger lease but has since subleased its two other floors to tenants like Omnicom and New York magazine, which converted to direct deals with Trinity Real Estate.
Brian Waterman, Lance Korman and Daniel Levine of Newmark Knight Frank represented Getty. A Cushman & Wakefield team of Andrew Peretz, Robert Constable and Mikael Nahmias along with Marc Packman of Trinity Real Estate handled the negotiations for ownership, which had an asking rent of $50.
The ground lease on the Palace Hotel was officially transferred to John Kukral's Northwood Investors for $377 million on July 2 by an entity controlled by the Sultan of Brunei.
The closing brings the actual purchase price down from the previously floated $444,000 a room to $420,000 a room. In 1993, the sultan paid $202,000 a room for the 51-story former flagship Helmsley property that was developed on land still owned by the Archdiocese of New York.
Spreading the LOVE -- Live, Organic, Vegan, Experience -- a new Organic Avenue will soon open in 1,000 square feet in the base of the Rudin- owned apartment building at 136 E. 55th St. at Lexington Avenue. The asking rent was $180 a foot.
The food outlet already has a juice bar and four other locations in Manhattan, plus one in Southampton. Samantha Rudin and Lou Somoza of Rudin Management Co. represented the owners in the long-term lease that was concluded directly with Organic Avenue's founder, Denise Mari.
"We think they are a really up and coming retailer," said Bill Rudin.