‘The Gardens’ party
Nuveen unveils a green 780 Third
REALTY CHECK
WELCOME to the rebranding party! Nuveen Real Estate is repositioning 780 Third Ave. as The Gardens at 780, capping a $40 million, “biophiliac” upgrade of the 512,000 square-foot office tower at East 48th Street that was originally the Wang Building.
It’s the latest move by a major landlord (Nuveen boasts $152 billion in assets under management) to make a 20th-century office tower more appealing in the post-pandemic 21st century.
Design firm A + I oversaw the project to bring nature and greenery to tenants. Nuveen, which has owned the 1983-vintage, granite-clad tower since 1999, is completing extensive interior amenities that include a state-of-the-art gym and wellness center, a tenants’ cafe and lounge and conference rooms.
Nuveen has exploited the tower’s deep setback on the avenue to create a 12,000 square-foot public minipark to open in June. David Morton’s hospitality group DMK will launch a restaurant and oversee the entire building’s food and beverage program.
Nuveen director of office and life science Brian Wallick said the changes and additions “will provide tenants with a model post-pandemic work environment in the heart of Midtown East.”
Current office tenants include financial firms Olive Tree Holdings, Lincolnshire Management and Baillie Gifford. The tower is 64 percent leased. Asking rents range from $68-92 per square foot.
CBRE vice-chairman Paul Amrich is the leader of the leasing team.
Gimme Shelter again
The pandemic made the job take longer than planned, but Shelter Island will finally get its most historic beachfront resort back this summer.
On June 17, The Pridwin will begin receiving guests for the first time since November 2019. But it won’t be exactly the same property that pre-pandemic guests may recall. The $28 million redevelopment on Crescent Beach by Curtis Bashaw’s Cape Resorts is an inside-and-out upgrade of the beloved but run-down hotel, which first opened in 1929.
The new Pridwin will boast 16 private cottages on the seven-acre grounds, 49 guest rooms in the main building, a restored lobby and public areas, and a stylish restaurant, as well as a private beach and pool services.
Colleen Bashaw, Cape Advisors’ vice president of design who is Curtis’s sister, created Pridwin’s new look. It retains the original structure’s bones and some of its fixtures but introduces modern motifs to complement the historic elements. Three chandeliers reclaimed from the original dining room will be rehung in the restored upper lobby.
The property aims to exploit swelling demand for Shelter Island lodging. The island’s most famous inn, the celebrity-magnet Sunset Beach Hotel, has only 20 guest rooms.
Pridwin will have a more discreet ambience. It will likely draw new clientele to the limited-access island, which can be reached only by ferries from Sag Harbor in the Hamptons or from Greenport on the North Fork.
Bashaw’s Pridwin partner is the Petry family, which has owned and operated the resort since 1961.
“They have an enormous legacy role,” Bashaw said. Cape Resorts is the operating partner.
Bashaw planned to take over Pridwin nearly three years ago, but the project was unsurprisingly delayed by the arrival of the coronavirus.
He likened Pridwin’s revival to the reopening of Manhattan’s Chelsea Hotel by different developers.
“Like at the Chelsea, we’re bringing back a legacy. Pridwin was an icon but it wasn’t renovated since the 1970s. We love restoring old places and this one has the old-school charm and vibe,” he said.
Cape also owns Sag Harbor’s Baron’s Cove resort and several others in Cape May,
NJ.
Hot corner
A striking new retail project is set to join the Downtown Brooklyn development boom. The building at 555 Fulton St. by Steven Witkoff and Apollo will take up the wraparound corner where Fulton Street, DeKalb Avenue and Bond Street converge. Designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, it will provide one fortunate tenant with highly visible space with 7,902 square feet on the ground floor space and 6,459 more square feet on the lower level. Groundbreaking is to take place soon.