Clothing retailer American Apparel has signed a short-term agreement for 17,000 square feet of retail space at the Chelsea Landmark building, developer and building manager Rose Associates announced today.

The lease comes on the heels of several other short-term lease agreements at the Sixth Avenue building, between 25th and 26th streets, with Spirit, a Halloween store that rented the space in September and October, and with furniture store Knoll, which hosted its annual warehouse sale in the space in November. American Apparel is slated to occupy the space between Dec. 13 and Dec. 28, to capitalize on the holiday traffic.

Bruce Spiegel and Bill Bergman of Rose represented the landlord in the transaction. Chris DeCrostas of Thor High Street Advisors represented American Apparel. – Katherine Clarke… [more]

A new 181-unit luxury rental building with a retail component will rise on Broadway and 77th Street thanks to a recently closed $125 million loan funded by the issuance of bonds provided by the New York State Housing Finance Agency, GlobeSt.com reported.

The building, slated to be called the Larstrand, will be developed by Friedland Properties and its representative Rose Associates. CVS has already agreed to lease part of the retail space.

Thirty-seven of the units at the Larstrand will be designated as affordable. … [more]

Spirit Halloween, a Halloween costumes and accessories store, has inked a temporary two-month retail lease at the Chelsea Landmark, a rental building at 55 West 25th Street and Sixth Avenue.

Rose Associates has been advertising for a retail tenant for the 17,000 square feet of street-level space and 7,300 square feet of lower-level space. The entire 23,000 square feet was previously occupied by bankrupt interiors store Gracious Home.

Leasing rates for the short-term or long-term were not immediately available.

“Short-term space is always priced at a premium, but the right location can make it worthwhile for seasonal stores or new retailers testing the waters in a specific market. – Katherine Clarke… [more]

25 Broad Street

Kent Swig’s former mammoth office building at 25 Broad Street may have finally come back to life as a 305-unit rental property thanks to Lehman Brothers Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported, after 80 percent of the 90 available units were rented in just two months.
With applications under review for the remaining units, more are now under renovation, the Journal said.
The project offers 305 one- and two-bedroom units, with 35 different floor plans and rents starting at $3,133 and $5,205 per month, respectively. 

Lehman took over the building after Swig defaulted on his mortgage in 2009. Swig paid $262.5 million to buy the former office property in 2005.

Swig had previously intended to transform it into a luxury condominium building…. [more]

There’s an antique collection of storage trunks — and potentially a community of insects and vermin — in the bowels of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. But in its latest issue, the New Yorker reported that property manager Rose Associates has begun sending letters to tenants asking them to claim their belongings, as CWCapital, which took control of the property after Tishman Speyer defaulted, tries to make better use of the space in advance of a sale.

The 110-building complex has offered tenants trunk storage space since the 1940s…. [more]

The grand columned Anglo-Italianate facade of Chelsea’s 10-building London Terrace Gardens apartment complex, built in 1930 and 1931, had been covered in scaffolding since 2008 while undergoing a massive restoration project, but that scaffolding is now beginning to come down. The three-year $7.7 million project, which falls in line with Landmarks Preservation Commission standards without actually having landmark status, will likely be completed by fall, according to Ellen Gribben Bornet, the general manager of the complex, which is managed by Rose Associates, the New York Times reported.

The complex features a full-size indoor pool, private health club, sun deck, and garden area…. [more]

Downtown Brooklyn’s Oro condominium, the 40-story tower at 306 Gold Street, has closed more than 200 of its 303 studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units, bringing the building to roughly 65 percent sold and occupied, according to an announcement today from Rose Associates, which is handling sales. That’s a significant spike from last November, when PropertyShark.com reported that 63 units had closed; even then, it was ranked as the city’s seventh-best-selling building of 2010. It wasn’t always smooth-sailing for Oro, though, which was originally developed by controversial United Homes owner Yaron Herscho. – Sarabeth Sanders… [more]

Kent Swig and 25 Broad Street

Kent Swig’s stalled condominium conversion project at 25 Broad Street is back in action as a rental building. A court-appointed receiver has tapped developer LCOR to put the 20-story building back on the market, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the leasing office opens today. The project offers 305 one- and two-bedroom units, with 35 different floor plans and rents starting at $3,133 and $5,205 per month, respectively. There are also hefty concessions: one month’s free rent, plus the elimination of broker fees for renters who sign on for one or two years. … [more]

From left: Stuyvesant Town, 300 Broadhollow Road and the Westin Ft. Lauderdale

Fitch Ratings yesterday downgraded a pool of commercial real estate loans
led by Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, a Florida hotel and a
Melville, N.Y. office property.
Fitch said the $2.42 billion loan pool, sold under the name Cobalt 2007-
C2, has 57 loans of concern, representing 38 percent of the pool, and 15 of
the loans are in special servicing, representing 17 percent. The current loan
balance is $2.32 billion.
The Peter Cooper Village and Stuy Town loan represents the largest
percentage of the pool, or 10.3 percent, and remains in special servicing
under CW Capital. The 80-acre site, with more than 11,000 units, is
currently under new management with Manhattan-based Rose Associates,
which declined to comment. … [more]

Kent Swig and 25 Broad Street

Lehman Brothers Holdings is seeking approval from the judge handling its bankruptcy case to restart Kent Swig’s stalled condominium conversion project at 25 Broad Street and turn the building into rental apartments. According to Bloomberg News, the bank said in a court filing that it plans to foreclose on both the conversion and on an adjacent development parcel at 45 Broad Street, and wants to invest $25 million to finish the job. Lehman has already poured $39.9 million into 25 Broad Street since Swig defaulted in 2009. As part of completing the 281-unit project, the bank would demolish the building’s south wing and transfer its 64,000 square feet of development rights to 45 Broad in order to attract potential buyers for the latter parcel…. [more]