Our own “Seeing Stone” has revealed that the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer security company, Palantir Technologies, has leased the former garage building at 430 W. 15th St. that is being transformed into a stunning tower for tech.
According to CoStar and public records, the 77,293 square-foot lease was signed in August but likely won’t begin until the work is completed next summer.
The lease includes portions of the ground and lower levels and the entire second-to-seventh floors plus the enclosed glass roof and terrace areas.
The building is getting its slabs re-jiggered to create 18-to-20-foot high ceilings, exposed brick and four penthouse floors with glass walls.
As we previously told you, the 99,558 square-foot eight-story garage was long-term, net-leased earlier this year through Brian Ezratty of Eastern Consolidated to Atlas Capital and Rockpoint. On the same block, Rockpoint and Stellar Management previously owned the Milk Building before selling it to Jamestown.”
Michael Morris and Paul Ippolito of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the tenant, which currently has 47,726 feet at the nearby 15 Little West 12th, aka 408-412 W. 13th St.
The CBRE team of Paul Amrich, Neil King, Ross Zimbalist and Steve Siegel represented Atlas and Rockpoint in the deal with Palantir, which had asking rents from $90-to-$110 per square foot. The 15-year lease has two five-year options.
None of the parties returned requests for comment.
Palantir focuses on solutions for items like crisis response, cyber security and a host of other law, people and government issues.
For those of you who have forgotten, a ‘palantir,’ or Seeing Stone, made by the Elves of Valinor was used in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to see and communicate with those looking into them elsewhere — basically a fantasy Skype.
A building just south of Times Square is in contract for nearly twice as much as the sellers paid for it just one year ago.
In July 2013, Carlyle Investment Management and Daniel Ghadamian and Joshua Zamir’s Capstone Equities bought 570 Seventh Ave. on the southwest corner of West 41st Street for $83 million. That transfer of the 167,000 square-foot office building worked out to $500 a foot.
Now, with giant LED signage installed and up to 20,922 square feet of retail space available on the very visible corner, the 21-story building in the tech magnet area south of Times Square is in contract for nearly double the money: $163 million, or $976 per square foot.
The buyer is American Realty Capital, which has several different traded and non-traded entities.
Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil Secured marketed the transaction. Earlier this year, the duo sold the two Class A buildings owned by Boston Properties across 41st Street at sky-high pricing.
Five Times Square sold for $1.55 billion and a 45 percent stake in Times Square Tower was sold to Norges Bank, thus revaluing it at $1.51 billion.
The parties did not return requests for comment.
The eventual sale of 230 Park Ave. by Monday Properties through CBRE could make it a participant in the Vanderbilt Corridor rezoning and revitalization, even though the landmark building itself can’t be touched.
Monday Properties repurchased the distinctive building in December 2007 for $1.15 billion, after owning it earlier under the Max Capital moniker. With rents and the market back in the groove, any sale could top that figure.
One bonus for a buyer would be its transferable air rights (TDR) as the corridor is being rezoned to bump the permissible floor area from 21.6 to a 30 FAR.
This means there are a handful of players that could team up to buy the building for its extra air rights.
According to a back-of-the-envelope computation by “Sky King” Robert Shapiro of City Center Real Estate, who specializes in air rights transfers, 230 Park has 81,538 square feet of air that could be transferred through a sale, for instance, to the winner of the MTA headquarters redevelopment of 347 Madison.
Bids for the 99-year lease of that site were due by e-mail to Cushman & Wakefield on Oct. 14 at 5 p.m.
The brokerage declined comment.
But RXR Realty and Walton Street Capital, which own 237 Park Ave., could effectuate a zoning lot merger and obtain as many as 219,846 square feet for additional development.
At one point, 230 Park’s current seller, Monday Properties, controlled both 230 and 237 Park and was going to merge them to construct a new tower on land by 237 Park.
But Monday, then in its Max Capital configuration, still needed to buy additional air rights, which never happened.
Andrew Penson’s Argent Ventures owns 1,285,011 feet of air rights according to public documents while the MTA also retained 100,000 square feet.
Penson has been vocal about getting cut out of the air rights sales process by the city, which has tried to limit the price.
He did not return calls for comment.
James Perse has signed a lease for the former Juicy Couture store at 368 Bleecker St. at the prime corner of Charles Street.
The 1,300 square feet on the ground and fabulous skylit 5,700 square-foot selling basement will provide enough room to consolidate his men’s and women’s collections under one roof.
The retailer also just opened at 257 Church St. by Franklin Street in Tribeca.
Owner Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. was repped by Andrew Stern and Christopher Johnson of RKF.
Christopher Owles of Sinvin Real Estate represented Perse in both deals along with colleague Sarah Shannon.
Kenneth Greene of RCS Real Estate Advisors represented Juicy Couture in its lease disposition.
Laura Pomerantz, formerly of PBS Real Estate, and most recently with her eponymous company, has joined Cushman & Wakefield as of Wednesday as a vice chairman and head of strategic accounts.
Pomerantz represents Bloomberg LP, Levi Strauss, Tory Burch and Giorgio Armani and repped Hudson’s Bay in its 400,000 square-foot office lease at Brookfield Place.