Miami REIT acquires interest in Barney’s old Chelsea flagship condo

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161 West 16th Street‘s retail condo sold for $55 million (building credit: PropertyShark)

Equity One, a North Miami Beach-based real estate investment trust, said it acquired a fee interest in a retail condominium at 161 West 16th Street in Manhattan for $55 million.

The 56,870-square-foot retail space, which faces Seventh Avenue between 16th and 17th streets, previously housed the original Barney’s New York flagship and currently houses a Loehmann’s apparel store under a lease that expires in March 2016.

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“This transaction is consistent with our strategy of acquiring irreplaceable urban retail locations with below-market leases that allow for future growth,” Equity One CEO Jeff Olson said in a statement. “We believe there is enormous potential for this site and are thrilled to add this property to our growing New York metropolitan portfolio.”

In September 2010, the firm acquired a 27,700-square-foot retail condo at Trump Palace, at 1175 Third Avenue, for $21 million. That site was occupied by a Food Emporium, under a triple net-lease to Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea, the firm’s first acquisition in Manhattan.

In November 2010, the town of Hempstead approved a site plan for the Gallery at Westbury Plaza, a 330,000-square-foot retail mall at Old Country Road. Construction was scheduled to begin this year, with the grand opening scheduled for the fall of 2012. The site is adjacent to Westbury Plaza, which Equity One acquired for $103.7 million in October 2009.