Italian Artisan Bakery Backed by Starbucks Coming to 1633 Bway
By Lauren Elkies Schram May 5, 2017 4:35 pm
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Princi, a boutique bakery and café out of Milan, Italy, will be coming to Paramount Group’s 1633 Broadway, according to executives on the property owner’s first-quarter earnings call this morning.
Company Chief Executive Officer Albert Behler said that Princi’s location at 1633 Broadway between West 50th and West 51st Streets will be one of the eatery’s first U.S. locations. Behler noted Princi’s partnership with Starbucks Coffee. (The coffee giant last summer announced that it was a global licensee and investor in the artisanal baked goods company.)
Ted Koltis, the executive vice president of leasing at Paramoun, said that Princi is a “high-quality tenant” and will occupy the space adjacent to the lobby entrance that was previously leased to Cosi. Koltis described Princi, founded by Rocco Princi in 1986, as “well-operated” and “well-financed,” and noted that it will serve as a “terrific amenity.”
Koltis further noted that the deal was “a good example of our stated retail strategy, a selective approach in deciding who we put at the front of our buildings.”
Last June, Starbucks announced that it joined the global investment team for Princi, which “will focus on expanding the number of standalone Princi locations worldwide as well as making Princi the exclusive food purveyor at the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Rooms in Shanghai and New York,” according to a press release from Starbucks at the time. The New York Roastery is slated to open in 2018.
“We have never baked in our stores in 45 years,” Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ then chairman and CEO, in last June’s press release. “But all of that will change with the creation of this unique partnership.”
Further details were not immediately available as Paramount declined to comment further, and no one from Princi immediately responded to a request for comment.
