Thor Equities has closed on the $23 million off-market purchase of Atlantic Gardens, a mixed-use development abutting the Barclays Center.
Atlantic Gardens consists of 24 rental units and nine retail spaces at 525-541 Atlantic Avenue between Third and Fourth Avenues. The seller, Bennat Berger of BCB Properties, bought the assets for $10.93 million just two years ago. Read More
With three days to go until the traditional Palm Sunday opening of Luna Park at Coney Island, the temperature was just above freezing.
Alberto Zamperla, 60, president and chief executive of the Italian amusement park operator and ride provider Zamperla SPA, steered The Commercial Observer into the company’s warm, modest offices across from the landmark Cyclone roller coaster.
A central hallway was lined with newspaper clippings that recount the area’s history as a summer retreat and amusement park destination.
“Coney Island, that marvelous city of lath and burlap, should always be approached by the sea, as then, and then only, can the beauty of this ephemeral Venice be appreciated,” began an article published on August 15, 1908, in Scientific American. “Landward, the trains run through squalid neighborhoods, and past the back of everything. Its best foot is put forward toward the sea.”
Coney Island peaked before cars and planes allowed New Yorkers to easily escape the city heat far outside the five boroughs. Its decay during the second half of the 20th century is as mythic as its halcyon days. Its boardwalk and amusement area rivaled the squalor of surrounding neighborhoods. The seaside was, to put it kindly, down at the heels. Read More
Some commercial real estate brokers are “kicking and screaming” about the audacity of some city landlords who they claim are disregarding their “exclusives” with retailers by attempting to land tenants on their own.
The idea of “skipping the middle man,” once thought of as a tool for efficiency, is enraging some brokers, who tell The Commercial Observer that large retail owners including Joe Sitt, Jeff Sutton and Joe Moinian, are steering out of their way – but digging deep under their skin.
“Totally not kosher,” one perturbed president of a top city brokerage wrote in an email to The Commercial Observer. “It puts the retail brokers in a difficult spot and it is morally incorrect.” Read More
The mere mention of “the need for creativity in real estate” sparks a sudden shift in Christel Engel’s otherwise stoic demeanor, as a wide smile overtakes her face. It’s a necessity in today’s real estate world, she says, raising a finger.
“You want to see? I’ll be right back,” says the Colliers International team leader, who oversees a portfolio comprising 1.5 million square feet, springing up from her chair, dashing from the room and returning in a matter of seconds with a large black scrapbook. Read More
Matthew Seigel has joined Thor High Street Advisors, the retail leasing arm of landlord Joe Sitt’s real estate company Thor Equities.
Mr. Seigel will move to the firm from Cushman & Wakefield, where he had been a junior partner of Joanne Podell, one of C&W’s retail leasing aces. Read More
Joe Sitt reclined in his office wearing the sly little smile of someone who knows something more than we do.
“Another retailer that we represent asked us if we could find them a space in Tehran,” he said.
Mr. Sitt seemed fascinated, not appalled (Mr. Sitt’s family is Syrian Jewish) or the least bit bewildered by the request.
“So many of the European retailers are operating stores in Iran,” the head of Thor Equities explained to The Commercial Observer. “We’re a little bit in a bubble in the U.S. Adolfo, Desigual, Mango, Diesel, I don’t remember which ones, but two out of four already have stores there. [In] Saudi Arabia, Mango already has 50 stores there. I have another request for Equador. Zara wants more stores in Venezuela. I’ve had requests for Russia. Those are some of the examples that show you the world is changing.”
Mr. Sitt can relate to clients like these, which he caters to through a relatively new arm of his real estate empire, a brokerage business called Thor High Street.
He too ventured off the beaten path to get where he is today; by many accounts one of the city’s most prolific and successful investors with a focus on retail properties.
Read More
An investment sales team from the real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle is rolling out a building in one of the city’s hottest retail neighborhoods just as the biggest retail industry event of the year is set to kick off.
The group, led by Glenn Tolchin, a rising sales executive at the company, and Richard Baxter, a senior level sales dealmaker at the firm, is marketing 446 West 14th Street, a three story, 21,000-square-foot property in the heart of the ultra-chic Meatpacking District. Though there is no set asking price in the sale, Mr. Tolchin and Mr. Baxter feel the property can net over $50 million, a hefty sum that equates to more than $2,000 per square foot. Read More
Real estate investor Joe Sitt, chief executive of Thor Equities, has closed on the purchase 516, 518 and 520 Fifth Avenue, three office and retail buildings on the corner of 43rd Street, for $130 million from RFR Realty.
Thor Equities went into contract on the buildings in December last year, unveiling plans to demolish them and build a 290,000 square foot glass property in their place that would house 30,000-40,000 square feet of retail on its lower floors and a hotel upstairs. Read More
Richter+Ratner, a construction management firm, has signed a 10,000 square foot sublease at 45 West 36th Street.
The firm, which has managed a number of notable projects in the city including the construction of both Prada’s and Uniqlo’s retail space in Soho, will take the roughly 110,000-square-foot building’s entire 12th floor from jewelry company Nadri. Samco Properties owns the building but, because it was a sublease, was not involved in the transaction. Read More
Coney Island developer Joe Sitt, of Thor Equities, beat out his rivals to win the Takashimaya Building on Fifth Avenue for more than $140 million, according to the New York Post:
[A] slew of potential buyers had been whittled down to a mere five finalists. Along with Sitt, those included Vornado Realty Trust; Read More
Jones Walk and Surf Avenue
Coney Island’s oldest building will soon play a role in its oldest rivalry: the vying for the biggest, baddest freak show. Texan sideshow owner John Strong is making a bid for the title, signing a new lease at the Grashorn Building on Surf Avenue, according to Read More
414 West 14th Street
The gods of denim will soon be squeezing into the meatpacking district. With a new lease on West 14th Street, the Levi’s store will be stocked full of skinny jeans to accommodate a “mecca for savvy, creative and artistic consumers,” as Levi’s vice president Joelle Maher put Read More
After a long standoff with would-be developer Joe Sitt, the city agreed today to buy 7 acres of his Coney Island holdings for $95.7 million–or more than $300 dollars per square foot.
It’s a nice haul for Mr. Sitt, who began buying up Coney Island’s boardwalk in 2005 for what he hoped would Read More
