Edgar Bronfman, some muppets and 117 East 69th Street

The Upper East Side townhouse that once served as the creative headquarters of Muppets creator Jim Henson is about to hit the market for around $28 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The 12,000-square-foot, neo-Georgian home, at 117 East 69th Street, is perhaps best known as the former Muppet Workshop, where designers from Henson Associates created stories for the likes of Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Big Bird. Now, the mansion is gutted and belongs to Warner Music Group head Edgar Bronfman, who paid $28.5 million for it in 2008 with plans to renovate. [more]

The Muppets Creature Shop is moving to 37-18 Northern Boulevard

Muppet makers at Jim Henson Co. are moving from their Soho office at
627 Broadway to a 12,000-square-foot space in Long Island City, at
37-18 Northern Boulevard. According to the broker, Jim DeLuca of Cushman
& Wakefield, incentives were key for the Creature Shop — which
designs and constructs all the Muppets like Kermit the Frog and Elmo –
and they were able to cut $6 a foot off the low-$20s a foot rent. In
the Soho space, the company’s renewal was proposed at $50 a square foot
last summer, but fell to $35 per square foot by the last offer. DeLuca
said the incentives, plus a freight elevator and a two-block stroll to
Kaufman Astoria Studios where Sesame Street is filmed, helped to seal
the seven-year Long Island City deal. [more]