Penrose Owners to Open High-End Gastropub at 140 East 41st Street
By Lauren Elkies Schram August 30, 2021 1:38 pm
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The owners of restaurants The Penrose on the Upper East Side and The Spaniard in the West Village are taking over the roughly 7,500-square-foot former home of Public House at 140 East 41st Street, Commercial Observer has learned.
The high-end gastropub will be called Albert’s, co-owner Ruairi Curtin told CO.
The Murray Hill eatery, slated to open in summer 2022, will be named after the Albert Quay in Cork, Ireland. The menu will include creative cocktails and dry-aged burgers, oysters, fried chicken sandwiches, steaks and other classic, New York tavern-style dishes.
The majority of the restaurant spans the ground floor, with some space on the mezzanine level and below grade at Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation‘s office building between Third and Lexington avenues, according to Marc Horowitz, national director of leasing at Cohen Brothers.
“It’s a great location close to Grand Central [Terminal],” Curtin said. “There aren’t too many options for good food and great cocktails in the neighborhood, so we hope to serve that need. When the corporate world returns to the office post-pandemic, they’ll need a stiff drink to let some steam off. We’ll be there for them.”
Public House closed in December, and the Penrose team signed the 12-year deal for Albert’s at the beginning of this month, according to Jason Pruger, an executive managing director at Newmark. Pruger represented the landlord, along with colleagues Adam Weinblatt and Lucas Kooyman and Horowitz. The asking rent was $150 per square foot.
Now is a good time to get certain types of deals done, Pruger said.
“The pandemic has made it so that a lot of second-generation space has hit the market, so experienced operators are taking advantage of this by a) not having to put in as much capital because of the pre-existing conditions, and b) getting better deals as landlords seek successful and experienced operators to fill those spaces,” Pruger said.
RPLRE’s Jay Gilbert and Jansen Hafen represented the tenant. They didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The 1 million-square foot office building at 140 East 41st, with an alternate address at 622 Third Avenue, is approximately 95 to 98 percent occupied, per Horowitz. Tenants include The Interpublic Group of Companies’ McCann Worldgroup, Joele Frank and FirstService Residential.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect the lease was for 7,500 square feet.
