Sitt Asset plans to fix up 450 Broadway, including redoing the façade, with the aim of signing a net lease for the entire property with a mid- to high-level fashion tenant.

Currently, only the basement and first two levels are occupied: the former owner occupied 2,000 square feet of the building, according to Property Shark, and the ground-floor is home to a beauty supply shop.

That tenant’s lease is due in September 2014, while a tenant on the second-floor is on a month-to-month rental agreement, David Sitt of Sitt Asset said.

Sitt Asset has not ruled out a secondary option of converting the currently vacant upper floors to residential condominiums or rental apartments. The building is zoned as a loft building with retail stores, public records show.

The company has not yet retained a leasing broker, but expects to find one at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual convention in Las Vegas, which kicks off on May 20, Sitt said.

“Soho is probably one of the most sought after retail areas,” he said. “We chose this partly because we love Soho and we love the area, and [Broadway is] probably one of the most high-traffic retail streets in New York, if not the world.”

In fact, a recent TRD analysis found that in the last year Soho was the busiest neighborhood in Manhattan for retail leasing activity.

Ivan Hakimian, the founder of HPNY, negotiated the sale, industry sources said. He did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

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Sitt spent $15.9 million for 161 Prince Street and $14.1 million for the adjacent 159 Prince Street, both between West Broadway and Thompson Street. The deal closed on Aug. 31 and appeared in public records today. The seller is listed as Hewitt, N.J.-based MRM Equity LLC.

Cafe Borgia is at the base of the six-story 161 Prince and Badich customized belts shop is on the ground floor of the five-story 159 Prince.

David Sitt, a principal with Sitt Asset Management, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Ralph Sitt’s Status Capital and Ralph Tawil’s Centurion Realty are the sellers in the transaction, which closed Wednesday.

Sitt and Tawil bought the property for $32.5 million in November 2012. 

The large increase in the property’s value is tied to a spike in Soho retail rents over the past three years, which is driving owners to make a handsome profit on their holdings. This is the first of several Soho retail transactions expected to close in the coming months.

The five-story building at 113 Spring has about 16,500 square feet above ground, including some 6,000 square feet of retail over two stories, according to sources. The ground-floor retail space is leased until 2021 to shoe retailer Frye at a below-market rent, insiders said. Office tenants include post-production firm Lost Planet.

Eastdil Secured’s Adam Spies, Doug Harmon, Shannon Ching and Doug Middleton represented the sellers, sources said. Eastdil and the sellers declined to comment, while Morgan Stanley didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Morgan Stanley is paying about $4,240 per square foot for the property. One block west, Invesco is in contract to buy nearby 131-137 Spring Street, a 65,000-square-foot retail and office property, for the same per-square-foot price, about $4,240, from SL Green Realty. Eastdil’s Spies and Harmon are also brokering that deal.

In addition, their team is marketing the retail cooperative across the street at 106 Spring Street, which has about 9,000 square feet on the ground and another 3,000 square feet on the lower level.

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The Midtown-based firm, headed by brothers Ralph, Eddie and David Sitt, signed the contract for $49 million, one source said, while another source said the actual price was lower. A Sitt Asset representative declined to comment.

The 36-foot-wide building is located between Broadway and Mercer Street in the heart of Soho Across Prince Street from Prada’s store at 575 Broadway.

The seller is the Doria family, which owns the popular Grace’s Marketplace on the Upper East Side. Calls left with the grocery company were not returned.

This purchase would add to Sitt Asset’s significant holdings in Soho, including 113, 138, 145 And 169 Spring Street and 450 Broadway.

Italian designer Moncler occupies 2,727 square feet of ground-floor retail, information from PropertyShark shows.

The luxury jacket maker moved into the space in 2010 after signing a deal in 2009. At the time, average asking rents on Prince Street in Soho were $378 per square foot, CBRE Group reported. Last year, The Commercial Firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Estimated That Rents On Prince Street ranged from $700 per foot to $800 per foot.

Cosmetics retailer NARS inked a deal for a small space at 124 Prince Street for what sources said was $1,100 per foot.

Industry insiders said Moncler is currently paying about $830,000 per year in a lease that runs for another seven years. Moncler did not respond to a request for comment.

Karen Kemp and Daniel Soares of the Corcoran Group are marketing the condo, insiders said, but the firm did not respond to a request for comment.

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The brothers’ Sitt Equities signed an agreement to acquire the four units at 8, 10, 12 and 14 Prince Street, at the base of a residential condo building at the corner of Elizabeth Street.

The seller was an entity led by Melvin Lev, who did not return a call seeking comment. A representative at Sitt Equities declined to comment. Ralph and David have also purchased property with their brother Eddie under the name Sitt Asset Management.

Ivan Hakimian, president of investment and brokerage firm HPNY, was an advisor on the deal. He also declined to comment.

The retail condo units have a total of approximately 4,000 square feet on the ground floor, insiders said.

Fashion brand Helmut Lang — which opened earlier this year — occupies the corner space at 14 Prince Street, while Paris-based designer Maje is in 10 Prince Street and Sandro is at 8 Prince Street. Maje and Sandro are both owned by the SMCP Group.

The post Ralph and David Sitt lock in Nolita retail for $22.5M: sources appeared first on Status Capital.

Safra, through an entity called JSRE Acquisitions, took a 70 percent tenancy-in-common interest in the property, while Sitt Asset took a 30 percent interest. A tenancy-in-common interest allows two or more parties to possess the property simultaneously. A source familiar with the transaction, however, said that Safra was acting as a lender and a preferred equity holder in the deal. No loan documents have yet hit public record.

A team led by David Barreto of Cast Iron Real Estate brokered the transaction. “It was about 10 months of serious negotiations with many people,” Barreto said, adding that heavy hitters such as Vornado Realty Trust and and Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities had expressed interest in the property.

French boutique Maje has a lease for the retail space until 2021, and is paying $540,000 in rent annually. There are six rental apartments above: five two-bedroom lofts and a three-bedroom duplex with outdoor space on the top floor.

Sitt Asset’s Ralph Sitt did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Safra’s Steve Montague and Carlos Bertaco, both signatories on the deal, couldn’t be reached. It wasn’t immediately clear if there was a broker on the deal.

Sitt Asset is an active player in the Soho retail market, and in January inked a $49 million contract for the retail condominium at 90 Prince Street, as TRD reported. The Safra family was involved in several big-ticket deals, most notably the purchase of a 40 percent stake in the GM Building along with Chinese real estate mogul Zhang Xin.

The post Safra and Sitt Asset pay $26M for Soho mixed-use building appeared first on Status Capital.

Commercial Observer has learned that the landlord sold 210 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg to Status Capital. The sale of the 3,219-square-foot building closed last Wednesday, according to Savanna.

“The staggering price per square foot metrics and succinct transaction times further underscore Bedford Avenue as Brooklyn’s premiere destination for both institutional and local investors,” said Brendan Maddigan of Cushman & Wakefield, who represented Savanna in the sale, in prepared remarks.

Status Capital, which is owned by brothers Ralph and David Sitt, paid $6.8 million for the building, according to a source familiar with the deal. Ralph Sitt did not immediately return a call for comment. That’s more than double what Savanna paid for it in 2013, when property records show it delved out $3.8 million.

During the two years it owned the building between North 5th and North 6th Streets, Savanna converted the second- and third-floor residential spaces into a luxury duplex. The 880 square feet of retail space was leased out to Juice Generation in a 10-year deal, CO reported in September 2013.

“Williamsburg is a cultural destination and has even become a major destination for many New York City tourists,” said Justin Oates, a senior associate at Savanna, in prepared remarks. “The influx of both local and national retailers and residential developments will continue to stimulate and change this dynamic neighborhood.”

As CO has reported in the past, the 23-year-old company has been on a sales blitz in the last few months. Last week the company sold off its ground lease for 31 Penn Plaza, or 132 West 31st Street, to the Vanbarton Group for $265 million. Savanna last month closed on the $275 million sale of 100 Wall Street to Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, four years after buying the building for $120 million.

The company could make even more money with one of its biggest sales: 1 Court Square in Long Island City. Savanna announced earlier this year it was marketing the 1.5-million-square-foot building after buying the controlling stake in it last year. Robert Knakal of Cushman & Wakefield is currently marketing the building, which is anchored by Citibank.

The post Savanna Sells Mixed-Use W’burg Building to Sitt Brothers for $6.8M appeared first on Status Capital.

Status Capital acquired the property, at 395 Bleecker Street between Perry and West 11th Streets, on March 9 for nearly $11.1 million. The seller, the Cartwright family, had owned the 3,300-square-foot “Bleecker Gardens” townhouse—which has residential access to the famed, 4,000-square-foot private garden in the West Village—since it was built around the turn of the 20th century.

The Sitts entered a delayed purchase sale agreement for the property two years ago, allowing them to commence construction repositioning it into a mixed-use building, according to Louis Puopolo and Alex Furst of Douglas Elliman Commercial and Diane Nichols of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who represented the sellers.

“We had a bidding process because there was so much interest, with bids from all the usual retail groups interested in these types of properties,” Furst told Commercial Observer. “Status Capital came in and bid a strong price that satisfied the seller.”

That agreement included incremental annual fixed increases on the purchase price, enabling the Cartwright family to sell 395 Bleecker Street at more than $2 million above its $9 million asking price. Status Capital, which was not represented by an outside broker, did not return a request for comment.

The property, which was delivered vacant, includes nearly 700 square feet of retail space at grade and roughly 2,400 square feet of residential space that will be rented out as a single-family home. The retail space, according to Puopolo and Furst, is expected to fetch up to $500 per square foot on a street that includes boutique retailers like Sandro and James Perse.

The deal “re-establishes Bleecker Street as one of the most desirable locations for retail” in the area, Puopolo said. “With all the talk about retail being on the downside, and we are in a period of readjustment right now, this sale certainly indicates we are on the uptick.”

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The Steve Roth-led real estate investment trust is set to close on the sale of the condo at the base of the 26-story Marquand at 11 East 68th Street this week, according to sources familiar with the deal. The 11,000-square-foot condo is fully leased to British clothing brand Belstaff, French women’s luxury retailer Sonia Rykiel and American clothing chain Rag & Bone.

Sitt, who runs Status Capital with his brother David and is still involved in his family’s firm Sitt Asset Management, is planning a long-term hold of the unit, sources said. But the leases are all short term, with six years remaining at most for one of the tenants.

Vornado and HFZ Capital Group jointly paid $170 million for the 41-unit rental building on the site in 2011. HFZ converted the residential portion into 26 luxury condos and Vornado controlled the newly created retail condo. Elie Hirschfeld snagged the building’s triplex penthouse for $38 million in 2016.

The condo, which also has frontage on Madison Avenue, features 6,800 square feet on the ground floor and 4,200 square feet on the lower level.

The retail’s price per square foot comes out to $7,727.

Vornado began shopping the retail condo in February, when it sought bids in the ballpark of $125 million, Real Estate Alert reported at the time. After a lengthy marketing process, the REIT went into contract late last year, sources said.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Adam Spies, Doug Harmon, Kevin Donner, Adam Doneger and Marcella Fasulo are brokering the sale. Vornado, Status Capital and the brokers declined to comment.

Only a handful of retail condos traded in the past year, as storefront vacancies and company bankruptcies have plagued the retail market not only in New York City but also nationwide. For example, TH Real Estate bought 10 Madison Square West for $97.5 million, or $4,733 per square foot, and HUBB NYC bought one of New York REIT’s remaining retail condos – and a parking garage – for $25.1 million.

Sitt has also been aggressive on retail, having bought 715 Madison Avenue for $62 million last year and hunting for a new retail talent at the troubled 2 Herald Square. Ralph and David’s brother Eddie also recently settled a lawsuit with them over ownership of the the latter property.

Abro Management, which had sold the Marquand to Vornado and HFZ, sued the firms in November, alleging it is owed nearly $15 million in proceeds from the apartment sales.

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Struggling Canada-based clothing chain Joe Fresh continues to lease the 10,000-square-foot space at 1049-1059 Madison Avenue, also known as 45 East 80th Street, despite vacating it this summer, sources told The Real Deal. Joe Fresh inked a short-term lease in 2012 and has two years remaining. Sources said the retailer plans to be bought out.

Sitt acquired the condo from the estate of late art collector Norman Alexander, for $4,800 per square foot. The space includes 4,500 square feet on both the ground and lower level, and 1,000 square feet on the mezzanine level.

The ADCO Group, a Midtown East-based development firm, built the 101,390-square-foot property in the late 1980s. There are 50 residential condo units.

Colliers International’s James Murphy and Margaret O’Keefe, who represented the seller, declined to comment, as did Sitt.

Average retail asking rents north of 79th Street along Madison Avenue are about $600 per square foot. Joe Fresh was paying “considerably below that,” sources said.

Loblaw Cos., the parent company of Joe Fresh, announced in May its plans pull out of 200 JCPenney stores nationwide and make a shift toward smaller retail outposts. Joe Fresh’s remaining locations in the city are 462 Broadway in Soho, and 110 Fifth Avenue, 510 Fifth Avenue and 215 West 34th Street in Midtown, according to its website.

In August, Sitt and Ralph Tawil’s Centurion Realty sold a retail-and-office building in Soho to Morgan Stanley Real Estate for $70 million, double what they paid in 2012.

Sitt, a long-time managing member of family firm Sitt Asset Management, is embroiled in several legal disputes with his brothers Eddie and Jack over their business practices.

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