Music store Sam Ash, a longtime mainstay on West 48th Street, is set to consolidate its flagship Manhattan stores into a new retail space at 333 W. 34th Street, it was announced this morning.
The music store will take a nearly 30,000 square foot space at the SL Green (SLG)-owned building, as was first reported by The New York Post.
Jeffrey Roseman and Gregg Gropper of Newmark (NMRK) Grubb Knight Frank represented SL Green in the lease deal.
In a statement, Mr. Roseman said Sam Ash “now will occupy a much larger location, with efficient, modern space for expansion, situated in the heart of the highly trafficked Penn Station submarket.”
Asking rent in the 15-year lease was $90-per-square-foot, The NY Post reports.
When reached by phone, Paul Ash, president of Sam Ash and the son of the company’s founder, said that the store’s move is “not imminent.”
“It’s going to be quite a while before the place is fixed up,” Mr. Ash told The Commercial Observer.
Sam Ash has several stores on both sides of W. 48th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The brass, winds, and drum stores will be first store to leave.
“The [building] on the north side of the street, which has a garage, is going to be torn down and there is going to be a condo going up,” said Mr. Ash.
That garage is owned by Extell Development.
Despite news of the move, Mr. Ash was adamant about the music chain’s financial security.
“We have 45 stores around the country so we are very stable,” said Mr. Ash.
Calls to SL Green were not returned by press time.
drosen@observer.com
