Carlyle, 60 Guilders eye $140M Soho retail purchase

Price for 106 Spring and 93 Mercer is $15,555 per square foot

From left: 106 Spring Street in Soho, Doug Harmon and Adam Spies
From left: 106 Spring Street in Soho, Doug Harmon and Adam Spies

The Carlyle Group and Manhattan-based investment firm 60 Guilders are the leading bidders to snap up a retail co-op unit at the base of 106 Spring Street and the adjacent 93 Mercer Street in Soho for $140 million, The Real Deal has learned. The price comes to a hefty $15,555 per square foot. 

The unit spans the ground floor and includes lower level space within two co-op buildings on the corner of Spring and Mercer streets. It has about 9,000 square feet of space on the ground floor and 3,000 square feet on the lower level. The seller is Workspace, the corporation that controls the co-op buildings, city records indicate.

The deal is not yet in contract, several sources said, and other potential buyers like Thor Equities and Cypress Equities are vying for the asset. Thor is a well-established player in New York City, but Cypress, a major national owner based in Dallas, is new to this market.

The acquisition would be one of the most-expensive retail deals ever in Soho. Other pricey deals recently include 90 Prince Street in 2014 for $17,500 per square foot, and the retail at 131-135 Prince Street, for $15,844 per foot, according to TRD’s analysis of Real Capital Analytics data.

Sporting good store Burton Snowboards occupies 106 Spring Street, where they have been since 2005; and Helmut Lang is at 93 Mercer Street, where it opened a pop-up store in 2011 and signed a 10-year lease the following year, according to CoStar Group data.

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Carlyle, the Washington, D.C-based private equity giant, made a string of recent New York City sales including 40 Riverside Boulevard for $410 million, the retail and hotel at 170 Broadway for $221 million, and 570 Seventh Avenue for $163 million.

Carlyle’s partner on the deal, 60 Guilders, is led by former Savanna executive Kevin Chisholm. In June, 60 Guilders paid $41 million for a Soho retail co-op occupied by Dior Homme at 133-135 Greene Street.

An Eastdil Secured team led by Adam Spies and Doug Harmon is representing the seller at 106 Spring and 93 Mercer. Eastdil did not respond to a request for comment. A representative of the co-op board did not return a call, nor did 60 Guilders or Carlyle.

This Is The Third Spring Street retail deal Eastdil has brokered in the past few months. The others were 131-137 Spring Street, which is in contract to sell for an estimated $222 million, and 113 Spring Street, which a Morgan Stanley real estate fund bought earlier this month for $70 million.