$315M deal in Vogue on 6th
Apt. tower ready for makeover
THE Vanbarton Group has outplayed a field of global bidders to sign a contract to buy The Vogue — a 320-unit apartment building with offices, retail and parking at 990 Sixth Ave. — for north of $315 million.
The late Holocaust survivor and Polish partisan freedom fighter Isidore “Izzy” Karten came to America and later built the 24-story building on the full eastern blockfront between West 36th and 37th streets.
After it was completed in 1987, his children, Harry Karten, Marcia Toledano and Bernice Bookhammer, hired Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies, who led the Cushman & Wakefield investment team that included Adam Doneger and Marcella Fasulo.
Along with the all-market-rate apartments — most with balconies — the property has 65,000 square feet of professional office space, a three-level 120-space parking garage run by Icon Parking into 2020, and 12,000 square feet of semischlocky retail in the lively corridor between Herald Square and Times Square that is ripe for upgrading. Previously, Vanbarton’s
Richard Coles and Gary Tischler beautifully repositioned 180 Water St. from offices to apartments, and sold it earlier this year through Cushman & Wakefield to deal partner,
Nathan Berman, for $450 million.
“You can expect a similar transformation to occur at 990,” said one party familiar with Vanbarton’s thinking who asked to remain anonymous. “This is a perfect rental, and it will take a multiyear repositioning to create and maximize the amenities to serve the market.”
Harmon’s team recently sold the rights to develop 1.3 million square feet of new office and retail at St. John’s Terminal, which is now in contract to Oxford Properties for $700 million. The sellers, Atlas Capital and Westbrook Partners, will retain and develop the residential towers.
Following Harmon’s previous $5.45 billion sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the middle class Starrett City complex owned by the Deane family with stakes held by the Trump family, including
President Trump, is now in contract to be sold for $850 million to Brooksville and Rockpoint Group.
The 1,400-foot-tall One Vanderbilt now rising next to Grand Central Terminal may finally have its second large tenant.
Sources advise that McKinsey & Co. is seriously looking at a lease for 250,000 square feet through its CBRE brokers.
To date, the 1.7- million-squarefoot One Vanderbilt has just a single announced office deal: its 200,000-square-foot anchor tenant, TD Bank. It has also snared a restaurant deal with Daniel Boulud. Both deals were first reported by The Post.
Representatives of the developers, SL Green Realty Corp., the National Pension Service of Korea and Hines, have previously told analysts they are “trading paper” with several firms and expect to end up with two to three tenants in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 square feet, with the remaining space going to single-floor tenants.
While taking rents at the top of the building will be higher, some deals lower down could end up ranging from the $130s to $140s per square foot, sources said.
No comment was forthcoming from the parties.
A worldwide immigration firm is crossing Wall Street to resettle uptown.
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy has signed a 108,000-square-foot deal for the entire eighth through 10th floors at 1400 Broadway on the northeast corner of West 38th Street.
The asking rent for the 16year deal was $59 per square foot.
The law firm has 40 offices around the globe, and its current New York City offices are in downtown’s 7 Hanover Square.
The tenant was represented by John Shaunfield, Seth Weinstein and Paul Ippolito of Newmark Knight Frank. Another NKF team of Scott Klau, Erik Harris and Neil Rubin represented building owner Empire State Realty Trust along with Keith Cody in-house. “The building’s infrastructure — fully modernized for the 21st century — attracted Fragomen, which was already drawn to the character, convenience and desirability of our Times Square South neighborhood,” said Thomas Durels, head of ESRT’s leasing and operations. The building is being upgraded from showrooms to office tenants and has already attracted Interpublic Group, Kohl’s and OnDeck Capital.