A high-profile Tribeca retail condominium, designed by famed architect Richard Meier and currently leased to celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, has hit the market for $9 million, according to Crain’s.

The 23,800-square-foot space at 66 Leonard Street, owned by Yitzchak Tessler of Tessler Developments, is comprised of an 8,000-square-foot ground floor restaurant space and two equally-sized floors beneath. While currently empty, it is being considered for a new restaurant concept by Vongerichten, whose lease expires in 2019. It previously housed Japanese eatery Matsugen.
The space can be delivered empty, Eastern Consolidated, which is marketing the condo, said, or with the option of keeping Vongerichten as a tenant. [more]

Yitzchak Tessler and 1107 Broadway

Citibank has filed for an injunction against the former Toy Building to
block the landlord, Yitzchak Tessler, from [more]

The former Toy Building at 1107 Broadway and developer Yitzchak Tessler (building photo source: PropertyShark)

Developer Yitzchak Tessler is facing multiple challenges in his effort
to hold on to the condominium conversion project at the former Toy
Building at 1107 Broadway overlooking Madison Square Park. The
bankrupt lender Lehman Brothers Holdings sued Tessler and his company
1107 Broadway LLC yesterday to foreclose on a $136.8 million senior
loan. [more]

The stalled condo conversion project at 16-story 1107 Broadway is still vacant, save for a bank branch on the ground floor. The former northern Toy Building, purchased for $235 million by developer Yitzchak Tessler in 2007, is now considered a “troubled asset” by real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics, and industry insiders told the Post that the project is unlikely to emerge from its current state any time soon. It’s possible, they said, that Joseph Chetrit, who owned the building before Tessler, may have retained some sway after the deal, and the building’s $343 million in debt to Lehman Brothers Holdings is up in the air. “The debt was carved up in a confusing way where no one knows what will happen, and there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on,” one source said. [Post]

Developers such as Lloyd Goldman, the Chetrit family and commercial broker Robert Knakal have recently opened their wallets as the citywide race for comptroller heats up, according to the most recent campaign finance documents filed last week. Brooklyn City Council member David Yassky took in the largest amount of contributions from real estate interests among the four major candidates for city comptroller, an analysis of the most recent reports from the city’s Campaign Finance Board, covering July 12 to August 10, by The Real Deal shows. But Yassky remains far behind Queens Council members Melinda Katz and John Liu in overall contributions, and is about tied with David Weprin, another Queens Council member. [more]