[Updated at 12.30 p.m. on July 6, 2011 with comments from JSR Capital] Cushman & Wakefield has been retained by JSR Capital to find retail tenants for the old J.P. Morgan & Co. building at 23 Wall Street (J.P. Morgan & Co. became JPMorgan Chase in 2000), The Real Deal has learned. The building was purchased for $150 million in 2008 by China Sonangol. The team is marketing 178,000 square feet of space, including square footage in two adjacent buildings, 35 Wall Street and 15 Broad Street, both on a corner across the street from the New York Stock Exchange.
“It is a great place for a department store,” Joanne Podell, an executive vice president at Cushman who is marketing the space with Matthew Seigel, told Crain’s. She said she intends to reach out to Bloomingdale’s to see the store might want to create an annex in the space. [more]

From left: 17 West 24th Street (source: PropertyShark), 325 Fifth Avenue, 15 Broad Street, 230 East 53rd Street (source: PropertyShark) and 247 West 46th Street (source: PropertyShark)

Bid on the City will auction off five Manhattan properties each worth at least $1 million May 31, and all a bidder needs is $1 to get in on the action. The Manhattan-based real estate trading platform will hold the bidding in its Time Square office for properties including a 7,800-square-foot commercial space at 17 West 24th Street with an original asking price of $9 million and a three-bedroom condominium at 325 Fifth Avenue originally listed for $3 million. The other properties are a $5 million commercial space at 230 East 53rd Street, and condo units at 15 Broad Street and 247 West 46th Street. Bid on the City previously held a $1 auction last February and most of the properties garnered final bids of less than half of the original asking price. TRD Comments

Partygoers mingle at the Corner at Wall Street party (left, top left and bottom right) where a victorian-era vault (top right) remains. (Exterior shot of the Corner at Wall Street, bottom left: PropertyShark)

The marketing team for the Corner at Wall Street, also known as — take your pick — 23 Wall Street, 15 Broad Street, 35 Wall Street, Downtown by Starck and the House of Morgan, officially relaunched its retail leasing efforts this week after years of uncertainty about the future of the former headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co. Today, J.P. Morgan is the investment banking arm of JPMorgan Chase.

Earlier this week, The Real Deal dropped by a swanky soiree at the converted and connected buildings, where hundreds of brokers and investor-types gathered in one of the expansive, raw retail spaces overlooking the New York Stock Exchange, now being offered as a “flagship retail opportunity” by managing agent JSR Capital. In all, there are almost 150,000 square feet up for grabs in the buildings, with multiple possible floorplans available. [more]

More than 126,000 square feet of prime Financial District retail space has gone up for grabs at Downtown by Philippe Starck, the high-rise condominium conversion of the former JPMorgan headquarters at 15 Broad Street/23 Wall Street, and the marketing team is angling for a department store to fill the spot. (Though its New York City future may be somewhat dependent on how the court battle over 3 Columbus Circle plays out, Nordstrom is said to be looking). The firm has also kicked off its marketing efforts for 14,789 square feet at 35 Wall Street across the way. TRD [more]

From left, Shaya Boymelgreen, Lev Leviev of Africa Israel and 15 Broad Street

Shaya Boymelgreen and co-developer Africa Israel have been hit with a $20 million lawsuit over shoddy construction at 15 Broad Street, the glitzy, 330-unit Financial District condominium conversion also known as Downtown by Starck. According to the Post, four members of the condo board and several apartment owners claim the developers left the building “rife with defects,” including a movie theater rendered unusable by building code violations, water leaks and a lack of fireproofing. They also allege that the developers have purposely avoided making the building improvements necessary for a permanent certificate of occupancy from the city in order to retain control of the condo board “as leverage to pressure its unit owners into accepting conditions that are far less than what the sponsor and its associates promised them.” It’s an all-to-familiar story for the embattled Boymelgreen, who virtually disappeared last year amid a slew of similar lawsuits from condo buyers in Brooklyn, but who has been attempting to stage a comeback on the New York City scene in recent months. Laurie Golub, general counsel for Africa Israel, pledged to “aggressively defend this action,” which she said is “wholly without merit.” [Post]

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Elie Pariente said he has seen a number of AIG execs relocating to 15 Broad Street

Brokers who work in the Financial District say they are seeing an increase in the number of financial services executives posted abroad who are relocating back to New York, and specifically to newer developments in the Financial District. Elie Pariente, managing partner at Urban Sanctuary, said he has done four deals in the past 45 days with AIG executives returning to the U.S. from Tokyo and Singapore, to work for Chartis Insurance, an AIG spin-off. Three of the apartments that Pariente, who said he has a history of deals with AIG employees, sold were in 15 Broad Street. All four were two-bedroom apartments, which Pariente called “standard” for financial services executives. The apartments ranged in size from 1,200 to 1,600 square feet and in price from $1.1 million to $1.5 million. [more]

Apartment 2220 at Philippe Starck-designed 15 Broad Street was up for auction through real estate auction Web site Bid on the City yesterday. But as Lower Manhattan real estate blog Downtowny reported, the property saw no bids and failed to sell. The 2,256-square-foot, three-bedroom unit is listed on Streeteasy.com for $1.75 million and was last sold in July 2006 for about $1.9 million. A number of other units in 15 Broad Street are listed on Streeteasy.com for over $1.75 million. [more]