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.
“It’s immediately next to the 14th street entrance of the High Line and the foot traffic with all the tourists and people visiting makes this a very attractive and unique retail location,” Mr. Tolchin said.
The building, which is currently owned by the prolific retail investor Joe Sitt, is coming available as ICSC, one of the biggest industry conferences in the world that caters to the retail industry, is about to commence in Las Vegas on May 19th. Mr. Tolchin said that he received the assignment to sell 446 West 14th Street in recent weeks and that the timing was a coincidence. But Mr. Tolchin is planning to attend the event and said that he will be targeting retailers there who would buy the property and occupy it.
“It’s a boutique type property that could accommodate a variety of tenants,” Mr. Tolchin said.
Mr. Tolchin pointed to 446 West 14th Street’s neighbor 874 Washington Street as an example of the kind of user the building could attract. The designer Diane Von Furstenberg uses 874 Washington Street’s base floor for a retail store and the upper levels for design offices and showroom space. On the roof, she has a private residence, a dwelling that Mr. Tolchin said could also be constructed on top of 446 West 14th Street.
“The building is zoned so that a caretaker’s home can be constructed on top, which basically means that the tenant can live there,” Mr. Tolchin said. “There are several buildings in that neighborhood where you have retail on the ground floor and design or showroom space on the upper levels, like the Theory store. The property could also be fully converted over to retail on every floor and become a flagship location for a major brand.”
Mr. Tolchin said he planned to discuss the property with several major retailers at the ICSC show.
The building’s premium price is tied to the high rents that the neighborhood commands. Retail space leases for rates in the $400s per square foot in the area, which has a concentration of luxury stores and trendy restaurants. Office space in the Meatpacking District is often in the high $60s or $70s per square foot or higher, premium rates even compared to some of the city’s priciest precincts.
