Two Midtown East retail condos sell for $35M

Lexington Avenue spots occupy part of a property sold by RFR for $28.7 million in 2010

From left: 451 Lexington at 45th Street today and the corner in 2010
From left: 451 Lexington at 45th Street today and the corner in 2010

Two ground floor retail condominiums in the high-rise at 451 Lexington Street sold for $35 million, property records show. The two units total 5,175 square feet of space.

The seller was 451 Lexington Realty, and the buyer is listed as Samson 451 Lex LLC. A representative for the owner said the company is subject to a non-disclosure agreement and could not reveal the entity behind Samson 451 Lex. Commercial brokerage CBRE confirmed that its agents represented the seller.

A TD Bank branch occupies space on the ground floor of 451 Lexington at the corner of East 45th Street. The upper floors of the building — which is opposite the northeast corner of Grand Central Terminal — are home to Club Quarters, a full-service hotel that opened in June 2013.

In 2010, Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty sold a 13,585-square-foot property at the site to 451 Lexington Realty for $28.7 million. A Sbarro pizzeria, two-floor McDonald’s and three other tenants occupied the corner at the time of the sale. That property was demolished, and the current tower opened last year.

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Tenants for the two spaces have yet to be revealed.

The corridor along Grand Central is seeing an influx of new artisanal restaurants and fast casual eateries, such as Naya Express and Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse at Club Quarters, James Famularo, senior director of retail leasing at Eastern Consolidated, told The Real Deal. Famularo said he represented multiple clients vying for a lease at nearby 459 Lexington, on the corner of 45th Street, and characterized the bidding as a “feeding frenzy.”

Restaurant operators are now eyeing the corridor for potential second or third locations, bypassing expensive areas with cache like the Meatpacking District to capitalize on the density of office workers along Lexington and Third avenues, he said.