A $4 million reposition ing of 645 Madison Ave. has lured a handful of hedge funds and high-profile tenants to hand over $100 or more a foot for a spot in the building.
The Rockrose property was represented in all deals by the Newmark Knight Frank team of William Cohen, Matthew Leon and Ryan Kass.
“Rental accomplishments in the base exceeded the projections for the top,” Cohen told us, referring to the idea that higher rents are still obtained for high floors. “We blew the pro-forma away.”
Building improvements include a Gensler-designed lobby and new security.
This week Phoenix Realty took the entire fifth floor – the first office floor above Ann Taylor – of about 11,000 feet, paying roughly $70 a foot to start.
Higher in the tower where floors narrow to 7,000 feet, Capital Dynamics leased the 18th and 19th floors for $100 a foot through Silvio Petriello of CB Richard Ellis.
Repped by Richard Chapman of GVA Williams, the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation paid $105 a foot for the 22nd floor.
Niarchos was the grandfather of Paris Hilton‘s buddy, Stavros III, while his dad, Philip, is a foundation board member.
In another deal, Rockland Funding took the 25th floor for about $90 a foot through Ken Ruderman at Studley.
Meanwhile, a tenant who moved into the building back in 1995 at a starting rent of about $34 a foot, just renewed. Cohen declined to discuss that new rent but you can be sure it likely doubled.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “As soon as you see a loss of jobs and sublease space on the market, that’s the end of this market and it won’t be a blip,” said an anonymous broker who has been through a few cycles of the real estate wringer. “There are real estate cycles, and they are not equal in depth or breadth or length.”
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Club Light has gone out at 125 E. 54th St. but will reopen in September with a new name, new look and new owners: Matt Wagman and partners.
Wagman, who operates Tribe and the Park Avenue South restaurant, PS 450, got a 10-year lease for 4,300 feet.
Alex Picken, president, David Hantman and Anna Rhein of Picken Real Estate and Nightlife Brokerage handled the marketing for Light’s former owners, Mitch Pollak and his attorney/partner Ronald Fishman, who walked away from the deal with about $250,000.
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Party planner to the stars, David Tutera, is setting up his new office space complete with a koi pond and crystal chandeliers.
Tutera, the male Martha Stewart who stars in the Discovery Home Channel’s “Party Planner with David Tutera,” is moving to the entire 11th floor of 470 Seventh Ave.
He is combining current offices in Westchester and the Meatpacking District at the new location. The 10-year lease for 7,000 feet had an asking rent of $32 a foot. Michael Kaufman and Grant Greenspan of the Kaufman Organization represented Tutera in the transaction.
The new digs are being fitted out with a polished concrete entryway, curved walls, black Murano glass and crystal chandeliers including a humongous one that will “float” over the six-foot pond stocked with the colorful Japanese koi fish.