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.
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Prominent Manhattan landlord Jeffrey Sutton took the witness stand earlier this week and testified about a deal prosecutors say was part of a scheme by Duane Reade executives to use bogus real estate deals to inflate the company’s profits. Sutton, an owner of more than 100 buildings with a focus in retail, explained how he served as an unwitting conduit for the Duane Reade executives, who are on trial in Manhattan federal court for attempting to artificially boost their public company’s short-term earnings with these transactions.

The landlord told the jury Tuesday about negotiations between his company and Duane Reade concerning a 2001 deal related to a property on Staten Island…. [more]