TD Bank signs 'glass box' lease

Steve Cuozzo

REALTY CHECK

The blighted-looking northeast corner of Third Avenue and East 57th Street is ready to blossom. TD Bank has signed a lease for over 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, allowing construction of a four-story "glass box" to start next month.

It's the latest new Manhattan project replacing a hole in the ground. The site at 201 E. 57th St. was not technically stalled, since developer Marx Realty & Improvement Co. was not distressed but merely waiting for a tenant -- but the elimination of a stalled-looking site is no less welcome.

Marx is the management arm of publicly traded Merchants' National Properties. It demolished obsolete old buildings on the 6,750 square-foot lot last year.

The new structure designed by TPG Architecture will have 30,814 square feet, much of it to be used for furniture and design showrooms. (Air rights that would have permitted a larger building were sold earlier).

CB Richard Ellis's Sloane Rhulen and Susan Kurland represented Marx in the bank lease; Cushman & Wakefield's Joanne Podell acted for TD Bank, which has been expanding in Manhattan -- but not previously into a ground-up new building.

Marx President and CEO Claude T. Chandonnet told us, "We spent a lot of time working in Miami's Design District," and inspired by that, "We designed something to tie into the whole designer showroom area around Third Avenue."

Chandonnet wouldn't talk numbers, but MNP's public filings did. TD Bank will pay an initial rent of $1.22 million the first year, or $300 per square foot. The completed project is expected to generate $3.4 million in total rent.

Marx -- which has owned the site since the 1920s and was acquired by MNP in 2006 -- manages 73 properties in 20 states.

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CB Richard Ellis global brokerage chief Stephen B. Siegel, who invests in restaurants for fun as well as profit, is said by sources to have a keen eye on the Elaine's site at 1703 Second Ave. -- possibly for an uptown edition of the Knickerbocker on University Place, which he and partners have long owned. No comment from Siegel.

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A rare, prime Upper West Side retail condo offering is expected to fetch nearly $50 million. Studley's Woody Heller is set to field offers for the south half of the Broadway blockfront between 83rd-84th streets, totaling 14,000 square feet.

The parcel comprises three storefronts owned by the Haines family, which developed the Bromley tower above the stores in the 1980s. Haines sold the apartments but held onto the retail portion until now.

Heller called the Bromley "one of few modernist buildings in the area. Retailers want newer spaces that are more flexible and accommodating" than those typical of prewar buildings nearby, he said.

Heller noted that, although demand is strong for retail condos, buyers are frustrated that "there aren't many available" -- and even fewer in modern spaces like the Bromley's.

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Italian restaurant Il Valentino, a fixture at 330 E. 56th St. for 16 years, is moving nearby. They've signed a lease for a new, 2,000 square-foot eatery at 1076 First Ave. between 58th and 59th streets.

Gary and Rick Dana, executive vice-presidents of Prudential Douglas Elliman's Dana Commercial Group, represented both sides. The group's Adam Kramer also worked on the 15-year deal, which sources said was signed for under the $15,000 a month asking rent.

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Nothing makes a new project look more real than curtain-wall glass. It's swiftly enfolding 1 World Trade Center, and now it's also going up on Larry Silverstein's 4 WTC and the Memorial Pavilion.

At the office tower, it's shown up on the first three floors, to be used for retail. Glass for the office floors above is expected to arrive soon. Steel for 72-story 4 WTC designed by Fumihiko Maki has risen to the 34th floor.

Meanwhile, Barclays Capital's equity research division came to some heartening conclusions about the downtown commercial market.

Far from fearing a space surplus generated by new construction, Barclays pointed out that downtown's class-A vacancy rate is currently lower than Midtown's, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

As noted in a summary by Barclays analyst Ross L. Smotrich, rents in existing buildings downtown are obviously lower -- but its take on the area's future was resoundingly upbeat.

It said that the impact of new supply will be mitigated by major infrastruc ture investment, the price differential and "improving residential and re tail conditions." (In other words: there will be enough new leases signed to avoid a "glut.") And it noted that CBRE "projects 7 percent annual rent grown downtown over the next five years" despite a "modest bump" in vacancy when 1 and 4 WTC are completed in 2013.

scuozzo@nypost.com