Jacques Torres, aka Mr. Chocolate, Opens 57th Street Branch
By Billy Gray December 4, 2013 2:30 pm
reprintsChocolatier Jacques Torres has signed an 880-square-foot lease at The Dorchester at 110 East 57th Street, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The popular sweets retailer will open a pop-up store this week in time for the holiday before closing for renovations at the end of January. This is the fifth NYC location for Jacques Torres, which also has an ice cream parlor in Dumbo.
Faith Hope Consolo and Joseph Aquino of Douglas Elliman represented The Dorchester co-op in the transaction. Andrew Stern of RKF represented the tenant. Asking rents in the neighborhood average around $300 per square foot.
“It was only a matter of time,” Ms. Consolo said of the tenant’s arrival on the East Side. “There’s nobody of his ilk in the neighborhood. Teuscher is old and Godiva is really a gift chocolate.” Jacques Torres’s current stores are at Rockefeller Center, 350 Hudson Street, 285 Amsterdam Avenue and 66 Water Street in Dumbo. “They did very well when they came uptown into Amsterdam. They set the tone and the whole block became beautiful.” The newest store will have 550 square feet of ground-floor retail and a 330-square-foot basement space.
“This co-op turned down the who’s who of retail,” Ms. Consolo said. “They treat it like it’s 740 Park.” Spurned prospective tenants included a men’s shirt shop that Ms. Consolo declined to name and Orogold Cosmetics, which she and Mr. Aquino brought nearby to 118 East 57th Street.
Last year, Jacques Torres inked a 39,000-square-foot deal for a chocolate factory in Sunset Park.
