Hudson site woos Sotheby’s
Stephen Ross of Related Cos. is bidding on Sotheby’s 500,000 squarefoot building at 1334 York Ave., with a proposal that includes snagging them as a tenant for his Hudson Yards project.
The proposed 1031 taxfree exchange would have Sotheby’s buy — and perhaps partially lease — several hundred thousand square feet in the 750,000 squarefoot retail podium that connects the first two office towers at Hudson Yards.
The scheme is modeled on Related’s deal with Coach for offices in the South Tower and the ongoing talks with Time Warner for the North Tower, with Related buying their current buildings.
Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil Secured are marketing Sotheby’s building, while Peter Riguardi and Alexander Chudnoff of Jones Lang LaSalle are leading the new office search. All parties declined to comment.
L’Oreal’s 402,000foot lease in the 1.8 million squarefoot South Tower has a clause that precludes that tower from being named for any “entity” — whether a tenant or “otherwise” — while other clauses prevent leasing to competitors.
Many already call it the “Coach Tower” for its anchor tenant, while Related execs circumspectly refer to it as “Tower C” or, rarely, by its address at 501 W. 30th St.
Li & Fung may have bitten off more than it can chew.
In 2011, the US division of the Hong Kongbased clothing distributor leased 588,944 square feet at the Empire State Building .
With a new US president in charge, however, the company is reshuffling its staff and putting 181,783 feet on the market for either a sublease or direct deal. The space includes 94,725 square feet on the 3rd floor, 51,971 on the 10th floor and 35,087 square feet on part of the 11th floor.
Li & Fung already leases large blocks in 1333, 1359 and 1372 Broadway.
“We were originally going to sublease at 1359 and now will keep 80,000 square feet,” said Li & Fung’s broker, Mitchell Konsker of Jones Lang LaSalle.
That Broadway building is known for Li & Fung’s stunning presidential penthouse offices.
“We are now repositioning the real estate for each user group,” Konsker said.
The floors, which are leased through 2028, are being comarketed with the Empire’s overseer’s Malkin Holdings, through its brokers at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.
The JLL team includes Benjamin Bass and Alexander Chudnoff, while NGNF’s dedicated Empire team is Ryan Kass, Billy Cohen, Jillian Santiago and Shanae Ursini.
Sources said the initial asking rent is in the high $40s per foot and will average in the mid$ 50s over the life of the lease.
A prime 100foot long swath of Madison Avenue retail just south of the Whitney Museum is coming to market. The shops will also wrap the northeast corner of East 74th Street.
Developer Daniel E. Straus had to preserve the 1860s façade but everything behind it is new.
The divisible ground floor of 7,200 square feet will have 18foot slabtoslab ceilings, according to retail agent Joel Isaacs, whose eponymous company is marketing the spaces. The asking rent is $1,200 per foot.
The lower level of 7,100 square feet will also be “legal” for sales. Ten large apartments are being developed above the retail.
After just seven months at 229 W. 43rd St., database software company 10gen has exercised an option and is expanding to 20,432 square feet on the 5th floor.
This gives 10gen 49,843 square feet of programming room for new hires. There’s also another option to lease 13,889 more square feet on the balance of the floor.
Greg Taubin of Studley represented the tech firm, while Jonathan Tootell, Brian Waterman, Lance Korman and Brent Ozarowski of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the Blackstone Group ownership, which had an asking rent of $75 per square foot.
The building, known as the former New York Times headquarters, will also host Yahoo!
Josh Zamir and Daniel Ghadamian of Capstone Equities and Carlyle Group have signed a contract to buy 570 Seventh Ave.
The 175,000 squarefoot office building at West 41st Street fetched $83 million, or $475 a foot. The Douglas HarmonAdam Spies Eastdil Secured team marketed the Times Squarearea property for seller Silverstein Properties.
No one returned requests for comment.