‘Sex’ inch heels
SJP’s boutique striding to Seaport
JUST in time for the “Sex and the City” 20th-anniversary hoopla, “Carrie Bradshaw” will soon open her first permanent Manhattan SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker contemporary-wear boutique. It will be at the new South Street Seaport, where developer Howard Hughes Corp. has lured numerous bigname New York chefs and retailers.
Parker’s shop — not a pop-up like the one in Midtown — will open at the corner of South and Front streets this summer or early fall.
Naturally, all hands were crowing. “We are so looking forward to opening our doors,” Parker said. “We are in love with our location and all the opportunities associated with being a part of this vibrant must-visit destination, which is transforming Lower Manhattan.”
Her business partner, George Malkemus III, added, “The neighborhood is both truly old New York while emerging as our city’s new creative hub — something that’s been missing for quite a long time.”
Saul Scherl, a Howard Hughes Corp. regional president, called Parker “a quintessential New Yorker who helped bring to life a beloved, iconic show.”
The SJP deal comes on top of a flurry of news out of HHC’s $731 million Seaport District redevelopment.
The new Pier 17, already home to ESPN studios, will register its first public heartbeat this month with the opening of pop-up Market Hall on the Heineken Riverdeck on the pier’s north side.
The public will get its first taste of Pier 17’s open skies with the Rooftop Concert Series produced by HHC with booking partner Live Nation Entertainment. The series will start on July 28 with a free performance by Jon Batiste with the DapKings.
Paying shows will follow, beginning with Amy Schumer on Aug. 1, Kings of Leon on Aug. 2 and 3, and continuing into October with performers such as Trevor Noah, Gladys Knight, Jeff Dunham, Diana Ross, Pink Martini and Paul Anka. Food and drink will be available on the roof patio, although a full-scale restaurant won’t bow until the fall.
More milestones are on tap throughout the Seaport complex. Summer months will see the openings of Cipriani-run Mr. C Hotel and Big Gay Ice Cream.
A huge Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant is coming to the pier’s ground floor in the fall, followed by David Chang’s Momofuku by year’s end. An Andrew Carmellini eatery and Malibu Farms are due in 2019.
Surprise, shock! Brookfield wouldn’t comment on its prospective partner in 666 Fifth Ave., Charles Kushner, lashing out in multiple directions in an interview with The Real Deal last week.
In the tantrum-like Q&A, Kushner called the media “idiots,” ethics watchdogs “jerks” and the mayor of Jersey City an “a--hole,” although he did have kind words for Brookfield.
As everyone knows, Brookfield is poised to replace Vornado Realty Trust’s 49.5 percent stake in 666 and lead a redesign of the obsolete tower once Kushner Companies purchases the minority stake from Vornado.
Publicly traded Vornado announced on Friday that the deal, which would net the Steve Roth- led giant $120 million, should close in the third quarter, although “there can be no assurance” it will be completed.
Brookfield could rescue cash-hemorrhaging 666 Fifth from possible ruin — the tower’s office portion is 30 percent vacant, losing $20 million a year, and faces a $1.4 billion mortgage payment next year.
Although the top-floor Grand Havana Room cigar lounge might want to stay forever, office vacancies will soar even higher if 666 remains in limbo.
But after overpaying for 666 Fifth and bungling its management for years, Kushner finally came up with a masterstroke by bringing in Brookfield.
Highly respected Brookfield knows how to turn around an uglyduckling property. It even turned fortress-like 450 W. 33rd St. into gleaming 5 Manhattan West.
Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that 666 isn’t the only office tower in its East Midtown neighborhood with a question mark hanging over it.
The US government and an Iranian “foundation” are still duking it out over control of 650 Fifth Ave., which a federal court found was a front to illegally funnel cash to the mullahs in Tehran.
Unlike at 666 Fifth, 650 Fifth’s office floors are nearly 100 percent leased. But although the court allowed the Justice Department to seize the property, the Alavi Foundation — which has managed to drag the case on for eight years — is appealing. That means the feds’ plan to sell the 36-story tower, roughly valued at $800 million, l remains stymied. The US has said it plans to turn proceeds over to family victims of Iranian terrorist acts.
The owners of Korean eatery Five Senses at 9 W. 32nd St. have done so well that they’re launching a second, much larger place down the block. They just signed a lease for a three-level, 9,000square-foot “new concept” restaurant at 319 Fifth Ave. It will be named Love.
The asking rent was $1.2 million a year. The lease was negotiated for the landlord by Eastern Consolidated’s Harris Bulow, Aric Trakhtenberg and Kevin Bisconti with Forman Realty’s Peter Forman. The tenant was repped by PD Properties’ Elad Dror, Tony Park and Stacy Gim.