A caterer to the stars has closed on a deal to take the former recording space of Jive Records, where celebrities like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake once kick-started their careers.
Peter Callahan, a caterer and author of the cookbook “Bite by Bite,” has purchased a 6,000-square-foot space on the fourth floor of 137-139 West 25th Street, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The final sale price was $2.1 million, $250,000 short of the $2,350,000 that Sony, the owners of the property, were looking asking for the space.
Chris Halliburton and Brandon Himmel of The Corcoran Group represented Peter Callahan in the deal. Brock Emmetsberger of Massey Knakal represented Sony.
Jive founder Clive Calder purchased nearly 75 percent of the building, from floors 2-through-10, when the record label had its studios and offices there, said Mr. Halliburton. Mr. Calder turned most of the floors into condos, added Mr. Halliburton.
Bertelsmann Music Group purchased Jive in 2002, and both entities would eventually be snapped up by Sony (Sony would become the sole distributor of Jive in 2009, and the label was eventually shuttered in 2011).
In controlling Jive, Sony also had ownership of 137-139 West 25th Street, a property that it eventually decided to sell off in pieces, floor by floor.
Mr. Callahan has catered events for well known personalities like Martha Stewart, Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa, Jessica Simpson, and Tom Petty, along with a cadre of notable names in the hedge fund and private equity industries.
He saw in the fourth floor space the perfect multi-use property to have as a kitchen and as a studio for an upcoming television show, said Mr. Halliburton.
“One of the interesting things was that it [the fourth floor space] was in contract for almost 18 months and for Callahan’s purposes they had to do a lot of things and create things that didn’t exist in the building,” he added.
Those things included installing gas lines for ovens and stoves and ventilation, among other kitchen necessities. This meant getting approval from The city Department of Buildings and neighbors.
“It was a very long process,” he said, calling it “mishegoss.”
Those permits and permissions were eventually secured, and Mr. Callahan will have a flexible cooking space for catering and entertaining.
