The Four Seasons Restaurant Seriously Considers Move

reprints


280 Park Avenue (Credit: Neoscape).
280 Park Avenue (Credit: Neoscape).

Oh, the seasons have changed. Following a legal dispute that resulted in the fall removal of a Pablo Picasso canvas that hung on the wall in The Four Seasons Restaurant, the famed eatery is considering a move a bit south, sources with intimate knowledge of the situation told Commercial Observer.

The restaurant, at 99 East 52nd Street in Aby Rosen‘s Seagram Building between Park and Lexington Avenues, has a lease through July 2016, said Four Seasons co-owner Julian Niccolini, and while the eatery is in talks with Mr. Rosen’s firm to stay put, he acknowledged, “we’re considering every opportunity available to us.” Those include 280 Park Avenue and other locations within walking distance from the Seagram Building.

SEE ALSO: Meta Exits 275K SF at 770 Broadway
Four Seasons, home to the legendary power lunch, is in talks to move to SL Green (SLG) Realty and Vornado Realty Trust (VNO)‘s 43-story, Class A building at 280 Park Avenue between East 48 and East 49th Streets. The restaurant space, which is apparently 18,000 square feet, was most recently occupied by Haru Japanese cuisine. SL Green, Vornado and the CBRE agents for the building declined to comment.

According to a spokesman for Mr. Rosen’s firm, RFR Realty: “RFR is in contact with the tenant and in discussions regarding their lease, which expires in the summer of 2016.”

Last September, the stage curtain, Le Tricone, was removed from the wall of the Four Seasons through an agreement between Mr. Rosen and the painting’s owner, The New York Landmarks Conservancy. The painting had hung in the restaurant since the eatery’s opening in 1959. The drama unfolded when Mr. Rosen sought to remove the painting to repair the wall. The conservancy said the artwork was too fragile to be moved.