Art school aweigh
Pratt sets sail on lease at Navy Yd.
DOCK 72 needed some good news — and it got it. Developers Boston Properties and Rudin snared Pratt Institute as a new tenant. The 62,570-square-foot lease will bring to the Brooklyn Navy Yard cutting-edge waterfront office building Pratt’s new MFA studios, which will have the entire third floor.
The venerable private college will move its graduate facilities for fine arts and photography from the Pfizer Building at 630 Flushing Ave. in BedfordStuyvesant. Pratt expects to move into its new space, which boasts an abundance of natural light and panoramic views, in the fall.
Pratt already had a 20,000square-foot Research Yard at the Navy Yard.
“Expanding our footprint in the Navy Yard provides our graduate fine arts and photography students with exceptional studios and access to a powerful community of diverse creatives and professionals,” said Pratt president Frances Bronet.
Other Dock 72 tenants include design firm Huge and digital culinary hub Food52.
But what happens next is uncertain at Dock 72, with a striking, ship-like design and “cool factor” features to spare.
Boston and Rudin opened the 675,000-square-foot project in 2019, with troubled WeWork as its 200,000-square-foot anchor tenant.
But WeWork filed for bankruptcy in November and stopped making rent payments, Boston said at the time.
A spokesperson for the developers said, “All we can share is that WeWork continues to operate in the building.”
Office occupancy
The return-to-office trend gained steam in December when average visitation rates at 350 Manhattan buildings rose to 67% of 2019 rates, according to the Real Estate Board of New York.
That was up from the 65% recorded in November — and would have been 74% if the sleepy last week of December between Christmas and New Year’s weren’t included.
REBNY’s analysis is based on Placer.ai location data, which tracks mobile data of office tenants and employees.
Since the real estate organization began posting its findings early last year, the percentages of office occupancy relative to 2019 has steadily risen.
Premium, so-called Class A+ buildings averaged 74% visitation in December while Class A and A-minus and B/C properties recorded 64% and 68%, respectively.
Midtown rates grew to 73%, Midtown South held steady at 68% and Downtown dipped to 54%.
REBNY director of market data and policy Keith DeCoster said, “At a time when office visitation appears to be stalling in some cities, it’s encouraging to see activity steadily ticking back up in much of Manhattan, even as it remains well below 2019 levels.”
Commercial boom
Talk about confidence in Sixth Avenue!
While some Midtown restaurateurs claim they’re struggling, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse — a three-level, 25,000-squarefoot jumbo at 1221 Sixth Ave. — just renewed its lease with longtime landlord Rockefeller Group for 20 more years.
The 2.6-million-square-foot office tower above the steakhouse is more than 99% leased, while the entire Sixth Avenue corridor from West 40th Street to Central Park South is thriving.
Terms of the renewal were not available.
JLL’s Patrick Smith, Corey Zolcinski and Matthew Schuss represented Del Frisco’s. Rock Group was repped by CBRE’s Eric Gelber and Jordan Kaplan, along with an in-house team of Bill Edwards, Marisa Gadlin and Gisele de Chabert.
Get more Realty Check at NYPOST.COM
Back to Soho
Anthropologie is returning to Soho after an eight-year absence. The popular retailer of sportswear, jewelry and home furnishings just signed a lease for a roughly 7,000-square-foot flagship store at 420 W. Broadway, where it will open in the spring.
Anthropologie was at 375 W. Broadway until 2016, when Gucci took over the space.