Joe Sitt of Thor Equities

Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities closed late last week on a residential and retail portfolio adjacent to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for $23 million in an off-market transaction, The Real Deal has learned.

The mixed-use development, known as Atlantic Gardens, consists of 24 rental units and nine retail shops along Atlantic between Third and Fourth avenues, seller Bennat Berger of BCB Properties told TRD. BCB and Arik Lifshitz of DSA Management had purchased the assets, 525-541 Atlantic Avenue, for $10.93 million just two years before, according to city records, but Berger said the actual price was closer to $11.25 million. [more]

Joe Sitt, Jeff Sutton and Faith Hope Consolo

Commercial real estate brokers are livid that the city’s big  landlords are disregarding the broker’s “exclusives” with retailers by attempting to land tenants on their own, sources told the New York Observer. Large retail owners, including  Joe Sitt and Jeff Sutton, are being accused of “skipping the middle man,” which is “totally not kosher,” a president of a top city brokerage told the Commercial Observer. “It puts the retail brokers in a difficult spot and it is morally incorrect.” [more]

Barry Gosin, Joe Sitt, Jeff Sutton 560 Broadway and  Jeff Sutton

Wharton Properties President Jeff Sutton and Thor head Joseph Sitt are linking up to buy out a minority stake in 560 Broadway, a prime Soho commercial building on the corner of Prince Street. [more]

Joe Siit and Fifth Avenue Tower (Building image c/o CityRealty)

Thor Equities won a temporary restraining order against Fifth Avenue Tower. The order, issued late Wednesday, blocks the condominium board at the 33-story apartment building from taking down Thor’s signs from the retail space that it owns at the property. [more]

From left: Joe Sitt, Abe Goldstein, Jeff Sutton and 529 Broadway

Over the past several years, some of the city’s top retail investors had been eyeing a small, down-in-the-tooth property at the corner of Spring Street and Broadway in Soho. Among its suitors: Vornado Realty Trust, SL Green Realty, Invesco and Crown Acquisitions. [more]

From left: Jeff Sutton, 529 Broadway and Joe Sitt

Two of the city’s most active retail investors, Jeff Sutton and Joseph Sitt, have partnered to buy 529 Broadway, a centrally located commercial property in Soho, for about $150 million, several sources said. [more]

From left: Murray Hill Properties’ Norman Sturner, 530 Fifth Avenue

Causeway Bay be damned! The glitzy Hong Kong shopping destination may have unseated Fifth Avenue as the world’s most expensive retail street, but New York City brokers are still bullish on Fifth, the Commercial Observer reported.

A recent Cushman & Wakefield report found that Causeway Bay was the most valuable shopping strip in the world, knocking Fifth Avenue from the position for the first time in 11 years. But Fifth Avenue’s No. 2 position may have more to do with a whopping 35 percent increase in Hong Kong retail rent values than New York losing value, brokers told the Observer. [more]

From left: 430 West 14th Street, Joe Sitt, Ron Burkle and Peter Duncan

Following last week’s revelation that Joe Sitt of Thor Equities was in contract to drop $100 million on a Meatpacking building, a source has told the New York Post that Peter Duncan of George Comfort & Sons had been in the process of buying the building when the Thor deal went down.

Ron Burkle, who owns the building at 430 West 14th Street, apparently “changed the terms of the term sheet in a very significant way” and used a separate lawyer to negotiate with Thor without Comfort’s knowledge, the source said. [more]

Joe Sitt and the Revere Sugar Refinery in Red Hook

Suddenly, outlet malls are all the rage in the outer boroughs. Thor Equities President Joe Sitt is considering bringing one to the former Revere Sugar Refinery on the Red Hook waterfront between the Ikea and Fairway stores, according to Crain’s. It follows reports yesterday that BFC Partners made a similar pitch for the parking lots near Richmond County Bank Ballpark in Staten Island and reports last month that the Lightstone Group was planning to bring outlets to the Whitestone Cinema site in Castle Hill. [more]

693 Fifth Avenue

In its ongoing effort to land a retail tenant for the former Takashimaya building on Fifth Avenue, Thor Equities is spending another $5 million to spruce up the six-floor space, Crain’s reported. The space has been on the market for 19 months, CoStar Group data shows.

The upgrade intends to convert 2,000 square feet of lobby space into retail space and brings the total six-floor retail square footage to 44,500. When complete in September, a three-story glass facade will also be added to the building. Once a retailer is signed on, Thor will spend millions more to build out the space. [more]