1552 Broadway billboards

Before Jeff Sutton transformed it into the darling of Manhattan retail, a Times Square retail building was part of a property tax-saving scheme, the New York Post reported. Between 2005 and 2010, 1552 Broadway, which Sutton purchased last year with SL Green Realty and lured Express as an anchor tenant, raked in millions from unregistered billboards.

Because the owners, 1552 Broadway Owner Corp LLC (previously reported to be the Riese Organization restaurant group) failed to file the ad spaces with the city’s Department of Finance, they were never factored into the buildings valuations, and in turn, its tax bill. [more]

From left: SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, Jeff Sutton and the slim 155 West 46th Street property (to the right of 1560 Broadway)

The Midtown-based real estate investment trust SL Green Realty and partner Jeff Sutton purchased a small, mid-block office building on 46th Street which they plan to demolish in order to expand the selling area at a large retail project they are developing in Times Square.

Sutton, president of Wharton Properties, and SL Green are 50-50 partners in the purchase of 155 West 46th Street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, a source familiar with the acquisition said. The $8.38 million sale by Simplon Hosiery Mills went into contract April 5 and closed May 23, city property records recorded today show. [more]

1552 Broadway

Clothing retailer Express has ditched the retail space at 4 Times Square for 30,000 square feet at 1552 Broadway, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the company’s earnings call last week, Express CEO Mark Weiss said the retailer had switched its New York flagship to “a more desirable location,” and warned that expenses and delays brought on by the move and the eventual build out would weigh on the retailer’s short-term prosperity. The Journal said Express could be paying more than $20 million per year. [more]

From left: Wharton Properties President Jeff Sutton; Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green; Jeffrey Gural, chairman of commercial brokerage Newmark Knight Frank; 1552 Broadway and 1560 Broadway

SL Green Realty and joint venture partner Jeff Sutton have found a way to possibly triple the
retail space at the 15,000-square-foot 1552 Broadway in Times Square without
making the building any bigger.

Because constructing new floors at the landmarked commercial building is
severely regulated, they are going horizontal into neighboring 1560 Broadway,
a 17-story office building controlled by Newmark & Co. Real Estate, a property
landlord that is an affiliate of the commercial brokerage Newmark Knight
Frank.

SL Green and Sutton, president of Wharton Properties, closed on the
$136.55 million purchase of the four-story 1552 Broadway Aug. 19… [more]

Fresh off his joint $136 million purchase with SL Green of 1552 Broadway, the Times Square commercial property that houses TGI Friday’s, Jeff Sutton has become one of the most prominent retail landlords in the city, The New York Observer said. According to the profile, in which Sutton declined to participate (as he did for a recent story by The Real Deal on his Manhattan activity), the Gravesend, Brooklyn-native started his march to the top in the early 1990s with a risky strategy: he would get the lease first, and then buy the space with the lease money. He used the strategy first with Payless Shoes and then CVS, before landing his big break in 2002, signing American Girl at 609 Fifth Avenue.
… [more]

Jeff Sutton and 1552 Broadway

SL Green Realty and Jeff Sutton are in contract to purchase the landmarked I. Miller Shoe Building at 1552 Broadway for $135 million from the Riese Organization, the Post reported. The joint venture, which is slated to close on the purchase by summertime, is likely to shutter the building’s iconic TGI Friday’s, a source said, and replace it with “a use that no one has thought of.” The 15,000-square-foot property comes with some air rights as well as two billboards that can be upgraded to LED signs and the approvals necessary to build a third sign. … [more]

The Riese Organization is selling its landmarked I. Miller Shoe Building at 1552 Broadway, which contains 15,000 square feet, some air rights, and the foot traffic guarantee that comes with a location on Times Square’s bow tie. The building, on the northeast corner of 46th Street and near Seventh Avenue, is currently home to a TGI Friday’s and has two billboards that can be upgraded to LED signs, plus approval for a third sign. For entertainment history buffs, there are statues of actresses Ethel Barrymore, Marilyn Monroe, Mary Pickford and Rosa Ponsella on the second floor. … [more]