Rockrose Development CEO Henry Elghanayan (top), Silverstein Properties President Larry Silverstein and 575 Lexington Avenue

Rockrose Development has cut off talks to buy 575 Lexington Avenue from Silverstein Properties and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Crain’s reported, because the price was too high.

The firm was reported to be near a deal to buy the 35-story building between 51st and 52nd streets for $370 million in January, but Rockrose CEO Henry Elghanayan said the negotiations stalled because of the price Silverstein President Larry Silverstein and Calstrs were demanding. [more]

Rockrose’s Henry Elghanayan and 200 Water Street

Rockrose’s 576-unit South Street Seaport rental building, 200 Water Street, is fully l [more]

Rockrose’s Henry Elghanayan and 200 Water Street

Rockrose’s 576-unit South Street Seaport rental building, 200 Water Street, is fully l [more]

The Real Deal got a first look inside TF Cornerstone’s new rental project in Hudson Yards, 505W37, at an opening party last night (see slide show above). The project’s two glass towers are located at 505 West 37th Street between 10th and 11th avenues, kitty corner to the company’s other Hudson Yards rental, 455W37. Nearly 200 market-rate units have been leased, according to Robert Schmidt, a leasing agent for the building, who led tours of the building for press and brokers at the event. The project has a total of 835 units, though a number of them are earmarked for affordable housing through the 80-20 program. [more]

Duane Reade, the New York City drug store mainstay that’s been updating its image over the past year, has announced that a new 8,500-square-foot location at 200 Water Street will be the first store to feature its new, remodeled interior. The drug store reportedly chose the location in part because of the influx of renters in the region, as 15 new residential buildings have cropped up in the Financial District in the last four years, according to Patricia Dunphy, senior vice president of Rockrose Development, which owns the 200 Water Street building. Duane Reade plans to re-brand 100 of its 253 locations in the city this year, adding better-lit, wider aisles and new interior fixtures.
[more]

From left: K. Thomas Elghanayan and brother Frederick started TF Cornerstone

Now that the division of Rockrose has been finalized, the two younger Elghanayan brothers are looking to snap up distressed assets. “Our plan is to look for properties that are in some form of incomplete state,” K. Thomas Elghanayan, who with his brother Frederick is now doing business under the name TF Cornerstone, told The Real Deal.
“We can take something that’s half-built and we can finish it, manage
it, rent it out, sell it, and do whatever we need to do. We’re looking
at a couple of opportunities like that, where we’d be buying these
[properties] from financial institutions.” In fact, he said, TF (for Thomas and Frederick) Cornerstone is close to making a deal on two properties in the New York metro area: one is a “broken condo,” and another is a development deal where construction started and stopped. [more]

The three Elghanayan brothers, from left: Thomas, Henry and Frederick

The former heads of residential giant Rockrose Development have finalized the details of their split, the two companies confirmed today, ending months of speculation about how the Elghanayan brothers would divide their real estate empire. H. Henry Elghanayan, the oldest of the brothers, who is keeping the Rockrose name, is now doing business at 666 Fifth Avenue, according to a statement released by Rockrose. He will retain some 2,600 apartment units and a 60,000-square-foot development site across from the Javits Center, Rockrose said, and will be developing “three strategic sites” in Long Island City. [more]