[EVG file photo]
You may have heard the news from Crain's yesterday afternoon: 51 Astor Place has its very first tenant!
1stdibs, an online auctioneer that specializes in the sale of high end vintage goods ranging from furniture to fine art, has agreed to a deal to take the 12-story building's entire third floor, a 42,232-square-foot space, for 15-years.
Woo!
And there may be more celebrating in the near future. Developer Edward Minskoff said, "We're very close to another deal. And we're in negotiations with six other tenants."
The 400,000-square-foot development opened in May without any signed tenants.
Meanwhile! The reaction from Twitter?
.@evgrieve With their first rent bill, of course!
— 51 Astor Place (@51deathstar) October 11, 2013
Previously on EV Grieve:
3 retail spaces available at 51 Astor Place
51 Astor Place demolition begins July 1; 17 months to build new black-glass tower
East Village — the new Midtown?
They're going to be lonely up there!
ReplyDeleteBet they got a cheaper deal than Minskoff envisioned previously.
ReplyDeleteI would be happy if this monstrosity never had any tenants but isn't it strange that no lease deals were in place prior to completion of the building? I wonder what the issue is/was.
ReplyDelete1stdibs is not an auction company but a web portal for independent antique and design dealers in the US and Europe. The company recently was purchased by the former CEO of DoubleClick (which was purchased by Google for $3.2 billion in 2007).
ReplyDeleteSez Crains: Some real estate experts...have been critical of 51 Astor Place's slow start. They have attributed it in part to the building's [high] rents...[and] tinted-glass and steel aesthetic echoes that of traditional corporate precincts like midtown or Wall Street, places that tech tenants have largely shunned.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to be a real estate expert to have figured that out. We called that one here on EV G way back when. Again. Tech likes refurbished old buildings with big windows, not super-mod glass towers. Tech also doesn't like crazy high outlier rents.
Minskoff will probably get the entire place rented out eventually, but not to the hip tech companies he was hoping for.
Any wagers on the company actually lasting 15 years?
ReplyDelete1stdibs is also an auction company with terrible taste in real estate. Why would anyone want to work in that ugly thing all day?
ReplyDeleteLet's hope they worked a good bargain on the rent and that others force the rent down even more. When the folks who built this place file for bankruptcy, and then their vendors do likewise, I'll throw a party.
ReplyDeleteIt could not be more hideous and more out of place with the look of the area. What were they thinking? And every time I walk by the seating area outside I look at those sharp corners and know the day will come when someone falls and cuts his head open on one of them. Such a bad design for a public area where you've got kids skateboarding all around.
ReplyDeleteI predict in 15 years, the Deathstar will be a shell of tumbleweeds.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding was that this building was built in excess of the legal zoning regulations because the mayor found a loophole that allowed them to IF a school was renting some of the building. Supposedly Bloomie himself found an educational group to rent 2 floors. What happened to that?
ReplyDeleteI think the city should rent the entire building and use it to store CitiBikes in the winter.
ReplyDeleteThe building is a monstrosity, and the "Midtown South" colonization should fail, but I am glad for the plaza. More green would have been better, but at least it's a public space with benches instead of a pay-per-seat café.
ReplyDeleteAs for the sharp edges, those are everywhere in this world. I'd be happy if the skateboarders were cleared out of this space.. I've nearly been run down by them numerous times. They are rude and a hazard.
- East Villager
empty shell of a building. 4-ever & always.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the need for all of the pedestrian plazas. If there was more greenery or a park-like setting to enjoy I might get it. But the Death Star plaza is nothing more than a bunch of kids laying around staring into their phones while a maintenance man washes away the previous nights vomit. This is better how?
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. 1stDibs is a cool company. My wife is a designer and uses them a lot. Not a bad company to join the neighborhood....
ReplyDelete