In one of the city’s largest-ever retail condominium deals, Spain’s Inditex Group has agreed to pay $324 million to purchase 32,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue for a new flagship Zara store, the company announced today. The space, formerly an NBA store, is roughly one-third of the 90,000 square feet purchased by Stanley Chera’s Crown Acquisitions, the Carlyle Group and Kushner Companies for $525 million in 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal, which originally broke the news of the deal. The rest, which is currently leased by Uniqlo and Hollister, is also on the market. The purchase price for the Zara space includes the buyout of the remaining time on the NBA’s lease, which sources said had less than three years before its expiration. Uniqlo’s lease at 666 Fifth last year, in which it agreed to pay $300 million over 15 years, was among the city’s most expensive retail leases ever. [WSJ]

The Rushmore and Extell’s Gary Barnett

It’s more legal trouble for the developers of the Upper West Side Rushmore condominium, who’ve just been hit with a lawsuit by a former broker with the Corcoran Group who claims he’s owed $132,900 in unpaid commissions, Crain’s reported. John Nelson, who was a referral director at the brokerage, said he brought buyers to the table for 28 apartments in the building by Extell Development and the Carlyle Group. But while he was paid half the commission promised for signed contracts in the building at 80 Riverside Boulevard, he claims the developers stiffed him for the remaining half once his buyers closed on their new units. And according to the suit, it’s not the first time this has happened: Nelson also sold apartments Extell’s the Avery, at 100 Riverside Boulevard, for which he had to “chase” the developer for “the payments owed to him,” his attorney said. The Corcoran Group is not involved in the suit, but CEO Pamela Liebman said Extell is always “diligent in paying brokers.” A spokesperson for Extell and an attorney for the defendants said the suit has no merit. [Crain's]

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A senior executive who handled acquisitions with Midtown-based landlord Ashkenazy Acquisitions, Rick Greenberg, died Monday of a heart attack in his Manhattan home, an executive with the firm said. He was 60. Greenberg, a long-time employee of the company, was a creative dealmaker who contributed to many transactions at the firm, company CFO Joel Suskin said. [more]

Japanese retailer Uniqlo has snagged 89,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue’s former Brooks Brothers space for a record $300 million over 15 years, Bloomberg reported. Uniqlo, which is owned by Fast Retailing, Japan’s largest clothier, and also has a location in Soho, will pay roughly $20 million per year for the lease on what will be its New York flagship. The asking price for the space was reportedly $30 million per year. C. Bradley Mendelson of Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlords, Kushner Companies, Crown Acquisitions and Carlyle Group. [Bloomberg]

From left, Charles Kushner, chairman of Kushner Companies, company principal and son Jared Kushner and 666 Fifth Avenue

The $1.215 billion securitized loan secured by the Kushner Companies
iconic Midtown office building at 666 Fifth Avenue was transferred to
special servicing yesterday as part of an effort to restructure the
loan, a company spokesperson told The Real Deal in a statement. Kushner
bought the building, located between 52nd and 53rd streets, for $1.8
billion from Tishman Speyer Properties in January 2007, at the time the
highest price ever paid for an office building. “The transfer of
the 666 Fifth Avenue loan was done at the request of Kushner Companies,
so that it could more easily engage in productive discussions with the
lender. The loan is not currently in default,” the statement said. Peter
Slatin, editorial director of commercial data tracking firm Real
Capital Analytics said the move was part of a trend in owners seeking
to reduce their debt. “They are clearly hoping to take advantage
of the increasing willingness of lenders to restructure to avoid what
could be a challenging situation since they not only bought at the top
of the market, they defined the top of the market,” Slatin said. [more]

Barry Gross and a map of the area his company helped sell

Barry Gross, the project director for Hudson Waterfront Associates, has paid $130,000 in penalties, according to the New York Post, in connection with an improper $1 million bonus he received for his role in the sale of a 77-acre parcel of land to Extell and the Carlyle Group. Gross, who at one point faced upwards of 20 years in prison for his role in the sale of the $1.76 billion property, which included a stretch of land from 58th to 72nd streets along Riverside Boulevard, has apparently “resolved… the case,” according to his lawyer Benjamin Brafman, “with just this payment.” The sale, which closed in 2005, was the biggest real estate deal recorded in history at that time. [more]

Jeans retailer Levi Strauss & Co. has inked a deal for 2,616 feet on the ground floor and the 2,000-foot lower level of the fully rehabilitated 414 West 14th Street retail and office building near the High Line. The six-story property, owned by Sitt Asset Management and the Carlyle Group, was completed in February but stands vacant. As The Real Deal first reported in December, the Meatpacking District space will be the San Francisco-based company’s fifth Manhattan location, adding to spots in Soho, and the Union Square area. A Levi’s spokesperson said then that the company was looking to be “opportunistic during the economic downturn,” by expanding globally. Levi’s new store is expected to open this fall, and the lease is for 10 years with a five-year option. The asking rent on the ground floor space was $400 per square foot, though brokers had said in December that they expected Levi’s to score a significant discount. [Post]

Barry Gross, who earlier this year was arrested on charges of grand larceny, falsifying business records, and filing a false personal tax return in connection with the 2005 sale of Riverside South Properties, has pleaded guilty to a tax evasion charge and is not expected to face prison time. Riverside South Properties was, at the time, the largest undeveloped parcel of land in Manhattan, extending from 58th to 72nd streets on the Hudson River. Gross, a project director for Hudson Waterfront Associates, helped broker the group’s $1.76 billion sale, with Donald Trump, to Extell Development and private equity firm Carlyle Group. Gross, who had faced up to seven years’ imprisonment, was alleged to have disguised his $1 million bonus for the transaction as a fee paid to a shell corporation in order to evade taxes. He will be sentenced Feb. 16 to a conditional discharge if he pays $119,000 to $135,000 in state and city taxes plus interest and penalties on the bonus. [Reuters]

Levi’s may be moving into space 414 West 14th Street

San Francisco-based jeans retailer Levi Strauss & Co. is in talks to lease a portion of the newly-constructed 414 West 14th Street retail and office building in the Meatpacking District near the High Line, several retail sources said.

Levi’s would take less than half the 6,400 square feet of the ground-floor retail space, with about 25 feet of street frontage for a high-end store, the sources said. A lease at the building would be welcome news for the six-story office and retail building built by developer Sitt Asset Management and private equity firm the Carlyle Group. The site has been vacant since it was completed in February. The opening of the High Line in June has brought more potential shoppers to the neighborhood, but pedestrian traffic remains light during the day, some brokers said.

Levi’s has four locations in Manhattan, including in Soho at 536 Broadway near Spring Street and near Union Square at 25 West 14th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.

A spokesperson for Levi’s said in an e-mail that the company was looking for space globally, but would not identify individual sites. [more]

The sponsors of Extell Development’s Rushmore condominium have quietly begun offering sales discounts of up to 25 percent in a campaign to retain at least some of the 30-plus buyers looking to back out of their contracts, according to multiple sources. A group of at least 34 buyers filed complaints with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office, looking to get out of their contracts. And sources said that representatives of the Carlyle Group, which is Extell’s partner in the Rushmore, at 80 Riverside Boulevard, have contacted individual members of the group regarding discounts. Carlyle officials were not immediately available for comment, but Gary Barnett, Extell’s president, denied that any discounts were being offered.
“It’s not true,” said Barnett, in an e-mailed statement to The Real Deal. “These rumors are being spread by an attorney with an axe to grind.”
Barnett did not elaborate on which attorney he was referring to, or how he knew about any specific claims.Attorney Richard Cohen, who represents the group of 34 Rushmore buyers,
confirmed that one buyer dropped out of the group in recent days and
one other buyer previously left the group. “Our assumption is they were offered a discount,” said  Cohen. “We don’t think they would otherwise leave the group.” [more]