Durant’s new NYC digs
A slam dunk for hoopster venture
T WO-
time NBA basketball champ Kevin Du
rant, who just joined the Brooklyn Nets, has leased a dramatic office space in a petite, brand-new building for his company, Thirty Five Ventures.
The 6’ 10” forward — who retired his longtime No. 35 jersey and is now wearing No. 7 for the Nets — is leasing the penthouse at the newly developed 112 Seventh Ave. building on the southwest corner of West 17th St.
The lease includes the full third floor, which comes with 4,500 square feet and a private roof deck. The design of the all glass-and-steel boutique project of just 17,068 square feet creates a building-within-a-building for Durant’s company, which will also have a private lobby and elevator.
Co-founded by Durant and his business partner
Rich Kleiman, Thirty Five Ventures oversees their numerous businesses, which bounce across sports, tech, media and philanthropy.
Current projects include The Boardroom, a multiplatform sports business/ culture-focused vertical distributed by ESPN; the basketball-themed series “Swagger” starring Win
ston Duke through a venture with Imagine Entertainment and Apple; an equity partnership with audio company Master & Dynamic for his Studio 35 headphones; and the Durant Center, an educational and leadership facility in Durant’s hometown in Prince George’s County, Md.
Todd Stracci and Hal Stein of Newmark Knight Frank represented Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures in the search for office space.
The boutique project is being developed by Aurora Capital Associates, A&H Acquisitions and Extell.
Brett Harvey of JLL represented the owners, who had an asking rent of $105 per square foot.
The 12,000 square feet of retail below has been leased to the Winnipeg, Canadabased furnishings company EQ3 for its flagship.
The asking rent was $400 per square foot for the ground floor.
The building is scheduled to open in 2020
The new No. 7 Kevin Durant Brooklyn Nets shirts are already available at Modell’s Sporting Goods, and that national retailer of sports equipment and apparel is also moving its offices.
It will move in 2020 to 26,607 square feet on the second floor and a portion of the third floor at 1430 Broadway on the southwest corner of West 40th St. The familyrun Modell’s was founded in Manhattan in 1889.
It is currently located at 498 Seventh Ave. at the southwest corner of West 37th St. on the 20th floor in similarly sized space, but the new building will have a conference center, multiple buyer meeting rooms and a direct escalator from the lobby.
Arthur Spitalnick of the Kaufman leasing company, who represented the tenant, said the Modell’s executives loved it, “as soon as they saw the escalator, which was there as part of the former retail space.”
The 11-year lease is for a spot occupied by L’Occitane, which is moving to 111 W. 33rd St. as we reported in May.
Ken Kronstadt and Rick Kramer of Newmark Knight Frank represented the building ownership, GLS Associates, which had an asking rent of $55 per square foot.
Tom Brady is using his muscle power to back TB12, a fitness and wellness brand that is now seeking space in Manhattan — where the athlete also has a Tribeca apartment and enjoys life around the Big Apple with model wife Gisele Bündchen.
Brady, who has already put his Brookline, Mass., home on the market, is thought to be setting up his life postNew England Patriots.
But will the quarterback’s venture turn off New York’s Giants and Jets fans? Fuhgeddaboudit! Conducting an informal survey around Hudson Yards and Chelsea on Tuesday before the Patriots trounced the Jets, most NY-area football fans felt Brady’s venture would be accepted by rabid New Yorkers. There are enough Boston transplants and those who respect his sixSuper Bowl wins and career.
Already open in Foxboro, Mass., by the Patriots’ stadium, and in the tony Boston neighborhood of Back Bay, Brady is seeking a Big Apple spot with enough elbow room to plant a TB12 Performance & Recovery Center.
Brady’s Boston-based broker, Corey Bialow of Bialow Real Estate, declined comment on the search.
A new trophy-office offering is hitting the market and could sell for in excess of $400 million.
Materials are circulating for the sale of 900 Third Ave., between East 54th and 55th streets, where a large outside glass-covered atrium near the top of the 36-story tower could be transformed into building amenity space.
The Paramount Group ownership has hired the Cushman & Wakefield investment sales team of
Adam Spies, Douglas Harmon, Adam Doneger, Kevin Donner, Joshua King and Marcella Fasulo to market the 597,986-square -foot glass-and-steel tower.
Cesar Pelli designed the 1985-era building, which is about 80 percent occupied. The vacancy plus undermarket leases provide an opportunity for a “value-add” buyer that likes to work on and upgrade assets.
The brokers did not return requests for comment prior to press time.
Just in time for Halloween, DUMBO is going to WELCOME you with a new waterfront sign on what is now known as the Panorama project.
The former Watch tower-owned buildings had eponymous signage removed from the 30 Columbia Heights building in 2017, as the Post reported. That red Watchtower sign replaced an earlier ER Squibb & Sons sign, and thus was not subject to landmarking.
According to developers CIM and LIVWRK, the new word on the skyline is to remind travelers and businesses that Brooklyn welcomes businesses.
“We wanted our renovation to celebrate Panorama becoming an accessible and vital part of the new fabric of the Brooklyn waterfront,” said Jason Schreiber, principal, Investments, CIM Group, co-owner, co-developer of Panorama.