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]

The Apthorp’s retail space

Travel accessory retailer Tumi has signed a lease for 1,000 square feet on the ground floor of the Apthorp, and will open there next fall, the Apthorp’s sponsor announced. The cost and length of the lease were not disclosed. The retail condominium in the building at 390 West End Avenue was purchased by William Friedland for $37 million in February, and already lists JPMorgan Chase and the Apthorp Pharmacy as tenants. Another space of about 2,500 square feet remains available. Robert K. Futterman Associates Managing Director Beth Rosen, Executive Vice President Karen Bellatoni and Lynne Bremer of Fandel Retail Group represented Tumi in the transaction, while Friedland completed the deal without outside representation. TRD [more]

The developers of the Upper West Side’s Apthorp condominium, led by Africa Israel, have filed suit against a state housing
agency alleging the building is suffering financially because an application to deregulate 45 rent-stabilized apartments has dragged on for more than nine months.

Apthorp Associates, in the April 4 lawsuit, alleges the New York State Division of Homes and Community
Renewal has sat on the application since June 2010, and urged the court to force the agency to make a
determination.

“DHCR’s delay in processing the proceedings has denied the petitioner an increase in its monthly cash
flow required for the preservation, maintenance and operation of the subject premises,” said Apthorp
attorney Daniel Roskoff, in the petition. [more]

[Update: 2:25 p.m.] The Apthorp’s 14,875-square-foot retail condominium is in contract for $37 million, according to the buyer, real estate investment company William Friedland. The retail space, located in the residential building’s ground floor on Broadway between 78th and 79th streets, contains four storefronts. Current tenants there include JPMorgan Chase and the Apthorp Pharmacy. The other two units, which are 1,560 square feet and 2,460 square feet, will be available for rent, according to William Friedland, which said it expects the sale to close early next month. TRD [more]

William Friedland, vice president with Friedland Properties, and the UWS neighborhood that’s been the subject of rent disagreements, according to tenants

An office and retail property owner has been drawing ire from tenants on the Upper West Side for allegedly refusing to budge on rents and, they say, effectively forcing tenants out.

Friedland Properties, which has maintained a famously influential grasp on the Manhattan retail scene while maintaining top-dollar rents, has failed to renegotiate rents with tenants on a handful of blocks along Broadway, at least between 76th and 78th streets, some tenants there say.

Lisette, a shopkeeper who declined to provide her last name, said she had to shut down her salon, Curl Up & Dye, this past Christmas, after Friedland refused to adjust her rent, which she declined to disclose.

“[Friedland] has almost a whole block closed down because [they] won’t negotiate rent,” she said. [more]

787 Madison Avenue

From the November issue: One of the most important names in Madison Avenue retail is not lit up in glitzy letters above a swanky boutique. But among those who know Madison Avenue’s “Gold Coast,” from 57th Street to 72nd Street — and have watched the strip suffer an uncharacteristic glut of vacancies — the low-profile Friedland family holds the informal title as the masters of Madison’s destiny. Madison Avenue has suffered the steepest rent drops of any major Manhattan retail district — the average asking rent plunged 41 percent, to $770 per square foot, in the third quarter of 2009 from the fourth quarter of 2008, according to CB Richard Ellis. If that isn’t bad enough, numerous sources said asking rents on Madison Avenue have actually plummeted even lower than the CBRE report indicated, to as low as $500 per square foot, while vacancies remain stubbornly high. One broker counted 11 availabilities, both publicly and quietly marketed spaces, just between 66th and 68th streets. Now, as the avenue’s leasing limps back to health, the Friedlands are expected to play an outsize role in its future development, tenant mix and rent levels.