Bow-tie sparkle
Swarovski nabs Times Square setting
IF you think Times Square doesn’t boast enough glam and glitter, have a crystal heart.
Swarovski is returning to the center of the bow-tie area — where Seventh Avenue and Broadway cross — with a new store coming to 1565 Broadway on the southwest corner of West 47th Street.
The bling maker quietly leased the former Roxy diner in July, city records show. As I told you, the building is on a long-term ground lease to Jeff Sutton.
Robert Cohen and Jackie Totolo of RKF represented the crystal purveyor, which will open in fall 2017 with plenty of signage. Sutton negotiated on his own behalf.
My crystal ball tells me the rent was the highest in Times Square, which the Real Estate Board of New York pegged at an average of $2,363 per square foot in spring of 2016.
The current four-story property with 21 feet of frontage is also getting a makeover so that Swarovski will have an approximately 1,200-square-foot first floor with very high ceilings along with lower-level storage and a sign that will stretch to the rooftop. A second sign will be used by others.
Swarovski has shops in the main tourist corridors and in buildings like 30 Rock, but since its 1540 Broadway store closed, the retailer has been without a place in the crossroads of the world.
The Swarovski star has topped the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for 13 years.
The Movielab building is getting some shine. Silverstein Properties has just signed a contract to purchase a super-duper majority stake in the property from Taconic Investment Partners, which will keep around 10 percent, sources said.
The deal revalues the 325,000-square-foot building at $180 million to $190 million. Taconic partners Paul
Pariser and Charles Bendit bought the Art Deco former Warner Bros. editing facility at 619 W. 54th St. for $112 million in 2012 and began a capital improvement program.
Facing DeWitt Clinton Park to its south, the 10story structure has tech- and life-science-friendly floor plates of just over 32,000 square feet, high ceilings, speedy wiring, light, air and Hudson River views.
Taconic has made attempts to sell the building, including one last year via CBRE, but it joined a graveyard of uncompleted sales doomed by the uncertain markets in the wake of the presidential campaign.
Now, the newly revitalized Cushman & Wakefield capital markets team led by Doug
las Harmon and Adam Spies has successfully marketed the stake.
AEG Live, which owns facilities and books a variety of touring acts, will move to 53 W. 23rd St.
The company signed its lease for 28,128 square feet, where it will have the entire
fifth floor. Lance Korman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented AEG Live in the 15-year deal. James Buslik, Brad Cohn and Alan Bonnet of Adams & Co. represented the building owners, who had an asking rent of $66 per square foot. The LA-based company operates 35 venues with recent artists’ stops by JenniferJ Lopez, Justin Bieber, Carrie Underwood (above), and Kenny Chesney.
AEG Live recently bought the former The Bowery Presents and will merge the two locations and identities into the new space. AEG has approximately 10,000 square feet at 145 W. 45th St., while The Bowery Presents will move from 156 Ludlow St.