NY Wheel in the sky
Retail rush to SI Ferry area
THESE are busy days around the Staten Island Ferry terminal in St. George. Pedestals have begun to arrive for the near-$600 million, 630-foottall New York Wheel, behind its original schedule but now on track to open in 2018. And almost at its foot, the leasing machine of BFC Partners’ Empire Outlets keeps on turning.
In the latest deal, Toys ‘R’ Us has signed for a 3,300square-foot store for the complex that aims for a grand opening in November 2017. The first Toys outlet on Staten Island’s north shore joins other signed retailers including H&M, Nordstrom Rack and Banana Republic. BFC principal Jo
seph Ferrara said the Empire complex — including 340,000 square feet of stores and a 40,000-square-foot food-and-beverage deck — is already 68.5 percent leased, including several new tenants he can’t yet name.
He also shared that Empire Outlets tenants are paying $80 to $125 a square foot for triple net leases (which include maintenance, real estate taxes and utilities), plus an unstated percentage of revenue. “We’ll try to make them all as successful as possible,” Ferrara said.
While Midtown South remains a mecca for media and digitally driven companies, some firms are looking elsewhere — perhaps due to asking rents that have soared into the $80s per square foot and overtaken pricing prime areas in Midtown. The biggest possible exit from Midtown South would be Spotify relocating from Sixth Avenue at 18th Street to Four World Trade Center, where it’s negotiating 400,000 square feet.
Now, Take-Two Interactive Software is relocating its national headquarters from 622 Broadway to the Durst Organization’s 1133 Sixth Ave., where it just signed a 15-year lease for 61,383 square feet. The asking rent was $80 per square foot.
The deal for the entire second and third floors comes with lollipops. Durst Organization President Jody Durst said Take-Two will enjoy “a unique work environment for their employees.”
Take-Two was repped by Cushman & Wakefield’s David A. Rosenbloom and
Maria Travlos. Durst was repped by Tom Bow, Rocco Romeo, Ashlea Aaron and Tanya Grimaldo.