Crain's New York Business
by Kira Bindrim
March 11, 2008
The Manhattan House is hoping to charge $100 million, but not for a condominium.
Jeremiah O’Connor, owner of O’Connor Capital Partners and the swanky Manhattan House, is pursuing a $100 million sale of the building’s retail, office and park spaces, according to The Real Deal.
Mr. O’Connor has hired Eastdil Secured to find a buyer for the space, on 200 East 66th Street, which includes 25,000 square feet of retail, 7,350 square feet of office spate and a 225-car garage.
High-end condominiums may draw high-end retailers. The area already houses luxury shops like Club Monaco, and the conversion could draw other stores looking to cash in on residents’ deep pockets. According to the Real Deal, both Brooks Brothers and White House Black Market (which sells only black and white clothing and accessories) are potential tenants. Asking rents for the space, between Second and Third Aves., range between $200 and $350 per square foot.
That’s a far cry from the building’s humble origins. Similar to the Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town complexes, Manhattan House was commissioned by New York Life Insurance Co. as an affordable-housing building for middle-class New Yorkers. Close to 250 of the building’s 583 apartments remain rent-stabilized
But unlike other white-brick buildings, Manhattan House will be around for awhile: The city declared the rags-to-riches site a landmark last year.
With the public eye trained on celebrities’ real estate moves, Mr. O’Connor has already marketed the Manhattan House as the former home of Grace Kelly. But between the litigation-filled condo conversion, and a credit crunch that has fewer people looking to shell out $14 million for an apartment, snagging high-end retailers might be his latest effort to meet deadlines: the developer must sell 15% of its apartments by June 1 in order to receive full financing for the conversion.
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1 comment:
Sounds like the owner needs to raise cash to pay back or to get an extension from the bank/consortium that loaned $700 million which is due on 6/1/08. . . Perhaps the lack of sales of the overpriced apartments during a recession, and the fact it is an older building with leaking pipes and other problems, caused the need for the sale of all retail stores?
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