Klein Group buys Columbus Ave. retail condo for $60M-plus

Deal with Starrett Corp. includes 31K sf parking garage

670 Columbus Avenue
670 Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side

The Klein Group acquired a retail condo and parking garage at 670 Columbus Avenue from Larry Cohen’s Starrett Corp. for over $60 million, according to insiders.

The New Jersey-based retail landlord closed on the two-level, nearly 36,000-square-foot retail space — located at the base of a 30-story, 280-unit condo building between West 92nd and West 93rd streets — for around $60.5 million earlier this month.

The deal also includes a 31,000-square-foot garage currently leased to parking facilities operator Icon Parking Systems.

Party supplies retailer Party City already occupies more than 13,000 square feet of space at the commercial condo, with a Cushman & Wakefield team led by Joanne Podell marketing around 23,000 square feet that currently sits vacant.

Jacob Klein, president of the firm, confirmed the deal. The company holds a portfolio of retail assets focused around Manhattan and New Jersey. The Klein Group’s retail holdings include more than 23,000 square feet at 111 Fulton Street in the Financial District and more than 25,000 square feet at 200 West End Avenue on the Upper West Side.

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The company also sold a nearly 14,000-square-foot retail condo at 261 Broadway in Tribeca to the Doria family for $22 million, as The Real Deal reported earlier this year.

The Starrett Corp., led by Pembroke Cos. founder and former Bear Stearns Real Estate Group managing director Larry Cohen, could not be reached for comment. The firm converted the building at 100 West 93rd Street into condominiums in 2007.

A JLL team of Glenn Tolchin, Yoav Oelsner, Richard Baxter and Jason Gold brokered the transaction on behalf of Starrett.

Average asking rent for ground-floor space in the Columbus Avenue retail corridor was $447 per square foot, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s Spring 2015 retail report.