From left: Jeff Sutton, SL Green President Andrew Mathias and 141 Fifth Avenue

SL Green Realty and its joint venture partner, Jeff Sutton, have made an agreement to sell two retail condominium units totaling 9,860 square feet at 141 Fifth Avenue for $46 million, SL Green announced today. The identity of the buyer was not immediately clear.

The transaction, which is subject to the lender’s approval of the transfer, is expected to generate around $17.5 million in net proceeds for SL Green, the company said in a statement.

Andrew Mathias, president of SL Green, said: “SL Green continuously looks to take advantage of evolving market conditions to enhance both its office and retail portfolios with selective dispositions and acquisitions. We are very pleased with the growth and success of our retail platform and anticipate making more strategic investments in the near term.” -- Katherine Clarke… [more]

J.P. Rosenbaum and a rendering of the Gallery at Westbury Plaza

Despite his sudden fame, J.P. Rosenbaum, the victor on the last season of ABC’s “The Bachelorette,” seems remarkably unfazed.
The Long-Island native, a construction manager for New York City-based J Companies, a residential and commercial real estate services and consulting firm, won a happily-ever-after — though they have yet to tie the knot — with the beautiful bachelorette Ashley Herbert, but he has other things on his mind. Rosenbaum is consulting on one of the biggest projects he’s been involved with to date, the construction of a 330,000-square-foot retail center in Nassau County. The project, called Gallery at Westbury Plaza, in Westbury, L.I., by national powerhouse developer Equity One, is slated to be completed in the fall of 2012.
In his first real estate-related interview since graduating “The Bachelorette,” Rosenbaum, who has just moved into to a new Midtown apartment with Hebert, sat down with The Real Deal to talk about life, love and condo conversions. … [more]

Elika Associates, a Manhattan-based residential buyer’s brokerage, will launch a commercial arm focused on buyer and tenant representation, the firm announced today.

The division is named Elika Commercial and will consult and guide clients towards the most efficient location for office and retail space leases and purchases and investment purchases. The firm has hired one new agent for the commercial side, and in the short-term will transfer some of its residential agents to that side, bringing the total head count to three. Elika has brokered two small retail leases thus far, although they are both pending, according to the firm’s founder and principal broker, Gea Elika. – Adam Fusfeld… [more]

From left: Jeff Sutton, SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, 141 Fifth Avenue

SL Green Realty and partner Jeff Sutton are selling their retail condominium at 141 Fifth Avenue, between 20th and 21st streets, in the Flatiron District, a spokesperson for the real estate investment trust told Crain’s. HSBC and a Cole Hahn store are currently tenants at the 20,000-square-foot storefront.
Eastdil Secured is marketing the property. The asking price was not immediately available.
Retail condos have been a hot commodity in the city lately, Crain’s said. Inditex, owner of Spanish clothing retailer Zara, broke national records in March when it paid $8,300 per square foot for a retail condo at 666 Fifth Avenue. … [more]

141 Fifth Avenue and Core’s Emily Beare

Savanna Partners’ condominium 141 Fifth Avenue has officially sold out, according to Curbed, after unloading its one remaining unit, the Cupola penthouse.The listing, which was marketed by Core’s Emily Beare, had an asking price of $17.5 million, but reportedly sold for $12.9 million. The six-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom unit, was one of three penthouses in the building that remained on the market for over a year after the building’s remaining 35 units had sold. The unit includes a terrace and full-floor bathroom. [Curbed]… [more]

Despite recent reports that Trump Soho sales have been weaker than claimed,
Shaun Osher, the founder and chief executive of boutique residential
brokerage Core, contends that the project was, at one point, 50 percent
in contract. Core had been charged with marketing the building to the
local and national markets until December 2008 alongside Prodigy
International, which was focused on international sales.”There were
some people that dropped out [after December 2008]” Osher told the New
York Times this weekend. As The Real Deal
reported last month, documents from the attorney general’s office
showed that the building was less than 16 percent in contract.
Meanwhile, Osher said activity elsewhere has picked up since a year and
a half ago, when the market had come to a virtual standstill. Core,
whose agents regularly appear on HGTV’s “Selling New York,” just
finished selling out the HK Organization’s 246 West 17th Street for
nearly $1,800 a foot, and has returned to the 80 percent-sold mark at
141 Fifth Avenue after a number of original buyers backed out of their
contracts during the downturn. [NYT]

… [more]

Jenene Danenberg, Luxury Attache co-founder, and 100 11th Avenue, where closings began last week

In a residential market where most new developers are trying to cut costs, Jenene Danenberg is convinced she can still make them spring for an upgrade. And she has — most recently at 100 11th Avenue and 141 Fifth Avenue, both of which started move-ins last week. Cape Advisors brought in Luxury Attache during the development of its 72-unit Jean Nouvel project at 100 11th Avenue near 19th Street. David Comfort, a senior executive with Cape Advisors, said that the service was helpful in moving sales. “At the time we [began sales in February 2007], West Chelsea was not a [very] residential area, some of the niceties were not particularly known,” Comfort said. Luxury Attache helped educate buyers on attractions in West Chelsea, Comfort said, and even helped arrange travel plans for prospective residents. Luxury Attache, a four-year-old full-concierge service that developers and condo boards have on board to assist residents with everything from party planning to nabbing theater tickets, currently has a full-time station or at least dedicated services in place at 16 other Manhattan buildings. Those include Soho Mews, the Greenwich Club Residences, the Prudential Center, and Andre Balazs’ William Beaver House. Other clients include the National Hockey League, with whom they recently signed, and financial bigwigs like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley…. [more]