By Gus Delaporte 3/27 7:30am

Retail

times-square-theatre

REBNY Issues Call for Submissions for Retail Deal of the Year Awards

The Real Estate Board of New York has opened the submission process for the Retail Deal of the Year Awards, it was announced yesterday. The awards recognize the most creative and significant retail deals in New York City.

Submissions for the awards are due April 25. Winners will be announced at the REBNY Retail Committee’s Deal of the Year cocktail party on June 11.

“It’s certainly the most prestigious award given in our business,” Peter Braus, retail committee chair at REBNY, told The Commercial Observer. “As retail has gotten to be more of a factor in New York real estate, it has gotten to be quite the market prestige to win the award.” Read More

By Al Barbarino 12/13/12 7:00am

The Plan

CO Page TK - The Plan

Check Out Proposed Glass-Cube Retail Under 1633 Broadway

Cushman & Wakefield is marketing a sub-level retail space at 1633 Broadway, where a 733-glass cube entryway designed by Moed de Armas & Shannon will serve as a portal to two lower levels made up of 39,588 square feet of stacked concourse space.

The opportunity lies within a 2.5 million-square-foot Class A office tower spanning the entire block-front of Broadway between 50th and 51st Streets, owned by the Paramount Group.

The vacant sub-level space, formerly occupied by the outer-space-themed Mars 2112, has been gutted, and a sparkling glass entry cube, reminiscent of the above-ground glass façade leading to Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue, will provide visibility and signage opportunities for a range of potential uses, said Alan Schmerzler, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield who reviewed the floor plans with The Commercial Observer. Mr. Schmerzler is marketing the space along with Executive Vice President Brad Mendelson, Senior Director Steve Soutendijk and Senior Associate Chris Schwart. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 8/02/12 2:04pm

Lease Beat

charlesprogers

Bed and Bedding Specialists Charles P. Rogers Moves Across the Street to 26 West 17th Street

Charles P. Rogers, the self-proclaimed “oldest source for beds” in America, is moving across the street to 26 West 17th Street from 55 West 17th Street for its new storefront, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The bed specialists, which opened its first showroom and factory in 1855, will be taking a total of 7,681 square feet on three floors in 26 West 17th Street, which is owned by The Winter Organization. 

Asking rent for the space is $275,000 per year. The lease is for 10 years.

Michael O’Neill and Gene Spiegelman, both of Cushman & Wakefield, represented The Winter Organization in the deal. Michael Gambino, Michael Burgio, and Alan Schmerzler, also of Cushman & Wakefield, represented Charles P. Rogers.

Construction to the new storefront space is slated to begin this summer with an eye towards a fall opening for Charles P. Rogers’ new store.  Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 6/19/12 10:00am

Retail

Times Square Theater.

All the Twists and Turns Behind Times Square Theater, Last Week’s Most Creative Deal of the Year Winner

Marvel Comics kicked the tires for a proposed flagship store and theme restaurant based on the comic book publisher’s legion of mutant superheroes. Burger King considered changing the 1920s-vintage theater into “The World’s Largest Burger King.” Even the professional grapplers from the World Wrestling Federation envisioned the domed auditorium as a studio-slash-retail-slash-performance space, where wrestlers would fight as diners ate their suppers. Alas, like the other contenders, the WWF walked away.

And so it went for the brokers and potential tenants seeking to fill the old Times Square Theater, a space so pockmarked with hidden challenges, prohibitive rent requirements and aging infrastructure, that the quest to find a suitable tenant lurched on for an entire decade, from shortly after George W. Bush’s election as president to the second half of Barack Obama’s first term in office.

Considering the false starts and dashed hopes C. Bradley Mendelson and Alan Schmerzler faced while negotiating their drama-filled deal last year for 217 West 42nd Street, an award ceremony on par with the Tony’s wouldn’t have been out of the question.

“We ran into a recession, we ran into 9/11, there was a lot of stuff going on,” said Mr. Mendelson upon winning the Real Estate Board of New York’s coveted Most Creative Deal of the Year award last week at the 14th Annual Retail Awards at the 101 Club. “We actually should have gotten an award for keeping the agency for as long we did.” Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 5/23/12 9:30am

RECon: Las Vegas

Times Square.

In Times Square, Nevermind the Knick-Knacks, Here’s the National Retail Brand

When he first took the job of president of the Times Square Alliance in 2002, Tim Tompkins had heard a persistent complaint from those who worked and lived in the neighborhood: The retail options stunk, composed mainly of the remnants of tourist-only shops that sold New York-branded T-shirts and similarly hokey knick-knacks. In short, the retail scene in the The Crossroads of the World was slow to catch up with the rapidly shifting residential and office demographics of the Times Square and Hells Kitchen neighborhoods.

“If you think about it, 15 years ago you didn’t have Ernst & Young, didn’t have Reuters, didn’t have Condé Nast; the Viacom building was filled with government agencies, and you didn’t have the 11 Times Square building across from the Port Authority,” Mr. Tompkins said. Then those businesses arrived, and suddenly the need for an “I (heart) New York” T-shirt was quickly being replaced with a need for everyday goods, like cosmetics and regular apparel.

“Part of what we did is we realized there was this enormous untapped spending potential for all the people who are working in these buildings,” Mr. Tompkins said. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 4/10/12 1:36pm

Retail Lease Beat

1095 Avenue of the Americas (photo courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield)

UPDATE: Nordstrom Rack Eyeing 1095 Sixth Avenue

Nordstrom Rack is reportedly in talks to snap up the 36,000 square foot Bryant Park retail space that is currently housing an NFL pop-up store.

The retail space at 1095 Avenue of the Americas, an office tower owned by the Blackstone Group, has been used as a pop-up store by Dylan’s Candy Bar and now the NFL, which is occupying the space in part to countdown its upcoming NFL Draft.  Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 3/28/12 1:12pm

Pop-Ups

1095 Avenue of the Americas (photo courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield)

NFL Commits to Month-long Bryant Park Pop-Up Space

The National Football League has tackled a 36,000 square foot pop-up store at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in time for its upcoming 2012 NFL Draft.

The space will be part “experience” and part retail, according to those close to the deal. From April 2 to April 30th, football fans will be able to purchase merchandise from NFL licensees like Nike, New Era, Under Armour, Wilson, and others.  Read More