Lois Weiss

Lois Weiss

Real Estate

Shake Shack heading to Herald Square in 2015

After putting Madison Square Park on the map, Shake Shack is joining the Herald Square retail mix.

Danny Meyer’s take on fast food will open in the fall of 2015 at 1333 Broadway on the southwest corner of 36th Street.

The building, owned by Empire State Realty Trust, already has the recently opened a huge Urban Outfitters store on its south end.

To create the 3,265-square- foot space for Shake Shack, two electronics retailers and Pronto Pizza will move out next spring.

Andrew S. Goldberg and Matt Chmielecki of CBRE represented Danny Meyer, while Fred Posniak and Ryan Kass worked for ESRT in-house.

The building is just one block from Macy’s and on the newly revitalized corridor between Herald Square and Times Square.

It has a pedestrian plaza with flower planters and a new energy, where multiple buildings are being targeted toward the TAMI tenants of technology, advertising, media and information.


The transformation of Broadway between Times Square and Herald Square into a TAMI corridor is, however, bumping fashion folks to the side streets.

Designer Rachel Roy, whose showroom has been at 1411 Broadway, will now relocate to 15,000 square feet at the nearby 58 W. 40th St. opposite Bryant Park.

The designer is worn by First Lady Michelle Obama and stars such as Jennifer Garner.

Her more affordable labels — Rachel by Rachel Roy and Rachel Roy Collection — are available only in Macy’s.

Marc Schoen, Brian Neugeboren and Michael Schoen of Savitt Partners worked with the brand and its majority stakeholder, Topson Downs of California, to locate the new global headquarters.

The company will now have floor-to-ceiling windows for its showroom and office space on the mezzanine and second floor of the building. John Belt and Laura Belt represented the building ownership in the deal that had an asking rent of $56 a square foot.


Another car dealership will soon be bumped for a tower.

The secondary Lexus showroom site at 823 Eleventh Ave. on the northwest corner of W. 56th Street is being marketed for sale and will be delivered vacant. Lexus has its main showroom at 662 Eleventh Ave.

According to investment broker Eric Michael Anton of HFF, it could become a condominium or hotel ranging in size from 107,000 square feet to 128,400 square feet, depending on bonuses and usage.

“This floor plate is just over 10,000 square feet so it’s perfect for a condominium,” Anton explained. “The real story is that the West Side is the new hub of development. All the young employees like this area as they can walk and bike all over.”

Anton declined to discuss possible pricing, but similar sites will sell for $450 to $550 per developable square foot.


Norges Bank Investment Management must be getting along with Boston Properties since it bought a 45 percent stake in Times Square Tower from the Mort Zuckerman-led company for $684 million.

Now, Norges is purchasing a 45 percent stake from Boston Properties in 601 Lexington Ave. which you may also know as the Citigroup Center.

Boston Properties is selling the stake in that building along with two others in Boston to the Olso, Norway- based sovereign wealth fund for $1.5 billion, which revalues them to $4.06 billion.

The Boston buildings are the Atlantic Wharf Office Building and 100 Federal St.

The slant-topped 59-story 601 Lexington Ave. at E. 53rd Street has 1.669 million square feet and includes a six-story low-rise building and retail portions that could be redeveloped in the future, the companies said in a statement last night.

It has debt of about $714 million and is 99 percent leased.

Norges also has investments with TIAA-CREF including 470 Park Ave S. and 475 Fifth Ave.


Thank to the NIMBYs for making the zoning so onerous no one could live or spend more than 183 nights at the towering Trump Soho at 246 Spring St.

Those rules made it so difficult to sell condominium units that the lender is now putting the hotel on the market. Worse, later zoning changes made the rest of the Hudson Square area available for residential living.

No matter what happens with the sale, Trump Hotels will continue to manage the 46-story property. There are 391 hotel condominium units, and according to sources, the buyer would obtain the hotel itself and all the amenities lobby, library etc. along with 263 unsold units.

All the units participate in renting their rooms out for nightly visitors. Rack rates are $500 and occupancy is in the low 80s percentile — low for the city but rooms are also much more elegant and priced twice as high as the average for the city.

The building was developed by the Sapir Organization and Bayrock with the CIM Group which has now asked Eastdil Secured’s investment duo, Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies, to sell the asset, which at 454 feet, towers over the low-rise area. “It will be great for an investor,” said one source.