A 30-story SLCE Architects-designed mixed-use project rising at the corner of Nassau and Ann streets in Lower Manhattan will be called the Lara, and offer 35,000 square feet of commercial space and 168 residential units, brokers close to the project told The Real Deal today.
Developers Anne / Nassau Realty have now begun marketing the office and retail portion of the tower — more than 30,000 feet of office and nearly 5,000 feet of retail, said Stanley Lindenfeld and Henry Goldfarb of Lee & Associates NYC, who are representing the spaces.
The tower, long-shrouded in secrecy, saw construction stall during the recession, Goldfarb said. But the building should now be ready for occupancy in the first quarter of 2014. And the mystery that has surrounded the project was not purposeful, he noted.
“We were just very low-key,” he said.
Naming rights and a “building within a building” arrangement are available for interested tenants, and larger tenants will have the opportunity to provide input on how the interior of the building is crafted, Goldfarb said. The retail portion of the tower will go by the address 111 Nassau Street and the residential will use 113 Nassau.
Interest in the office space so far has come mostly from private schools and media companies, Goldfarb said. Restaurants are showing strong interest in the retail. Asking rents for the retail are $100 per square foot, while the office space is asking $40 per square foot.
The residential rental units will be marketed internally by the developer at an on-site sales office, Goldfarb said. Asking rents for those units are not yet available.
The building’s format — bringing together office, retail and residential – may also augur a new trend in the Lower Manhattan area, where both residential and office rents have been relatively stagnant for years.
“This is the way forward down in that area,” Goldfarb said. “This is the first project to do this from the ground up.”