‘Americas’ dream
6th Ave. sees big rebound
CELEBRATION WILL be in the air on Wednesday when the Avenue of the Americas Association holds its annual meeting at the Rainbow Room. What most New Yorkers call Sixth Avenue is enjoying a little-recognized commercial boom even as the overall Manhattan office and retail markets continue to struggle.
In a nutshell, the Sixth Avenue/ Rockefeller Center submarket’s 42 million square feet are cleaning the clocks of other office districts. Its first-quarter vacancy rate was 14.6% compared with more than 20% in every other similarly sized submarket, according to Cushman & Wakefield. CBRE found 12.3% availability for Sixth/Rock versus 18.5% for Manhattan as a whole.
There’s a leasing frenzy at the Durst Organization’s 1155 Sixth, where Global Relay USA recently signed for the top five floors. Law firm Latham & Watkins just brought Rockefeller Group’s 1271 Sixth to 100% occupancy; a massive new Avra restaurant will open on the tower’s ground floor in June. A magnificent new, $50 million public plaza will open late this year at Rock Group’s 1221 Sixth Ave.
Brookfield transformed drab 1100 Sixth Ave., a k a Two Bryant Park, into a gleaming glass jewel box for Bank of America. Landlords including Rockefeller Group, Durst, SL Green and Fisher Brothers have pumped tens of millions of upgrades into their properties.
CBRE dealmaker John Maher noted: “Many were writing off Sixth Avenue in 2013-15 when numerous large blocks created the highest vacancy in the city. But those large blocks created large-space opportunities for large tenants.
“The reinvestment and re-leasing at the time to high-quality large tenants has created the strength and stability that the avenue is now seeing.”
Sixth and Park avenues are the “best business streets in the world,” Maher said.
But there’s a difference. “While Park Avenue is largely dominated by the elite of banking and finance, Sixth has an extraordinary level of diversity, including headquarters for sports such as MLB, media and entertainment [News Corporation, Comcast] and tech firms [Salesforce].”
The tenants’ diverse workforces help support an emerging retail and restaurant climate, with such names as Del Frisco’s, the Steinway piano showroom and vinyl music emporium Rough Trade.
MetLife makeover
The MetLife Building, a k a 200 Park Avenue, hasn’t been quite the same since its ground-floor and lobby restaurants closed as part of a long-term tower overhaul by landlords Tishman Speyer and Irvine Co. But that is going to soon change.
In one of the year’s largest restaurant deals anywhere, Capital Grille has signed a lease for a huge, 15,000-square-foot (including outdoor space) steakhouse along East 45th Street to replace Naples 45. The opening is set for mid-2023. Also coming are Jack’s Stir Brew Coffee and Black Seed Bagels, which will open this year in the lobby.
Talks are ongoing to fill the former La Fonda del Sol space.
The tower recently underwent a major redesign of its lobby and improved connections with Grand Central Terminal.
‘Vampire facial’
The “vampire facial” is coming to Manhattan.
Celeb-favorite skin care expert Barbara Sturm — known to her fans as Dr. Sturm — will open her first full-scale, permanent Big Apple stores in prominent locations this fall.
Sturm’s celebrity followers include Bella Hadid (who credited Sturm’s regimen with saving her skin), Gwyneth Paltrow (who featured Sturm’s eye cream on her GOOP site), Kim Kardashian and Cher. Her signature product is the MC1 Moisturizer, a $1,400 supercream infused with the purchaser’s own blood that’s used in a socalled “vampire facial.” Although Sturm has a pop-up on Spring Street and previously had a temporary one at club Zero Bond, the new locations are her first permanent New York locations. She also has stores in Los Angeles, Miami and London. Both of the long-term Dr. Sturm leases were signed last week. The larger venue will be a combined spa and retail store at 1006 Madison Ave., a four-story building at East 78th Street. It was previously home to French boutique Roland Mouret.