Extell project pushes Sam Ash to 34th Street

Fearing that Extell Development is preparing a new development for its West 48th Street storefronts, Sam Ash is leaving the thoroughfare, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, long dominated by music instrument and equipment shops. According to the New York Post, Sam Ash has signed a lease for 30,000 square feet at SL Green Realty’s 333 West 34th Street, across from the Loews multiplex cinema. The company will move its six stores along West 48th Street to the new location, which comprises 20,000 square feet on the sidewalk and 10,000 more below-ground. The space was formerly JPMorgan’s cafeteria.

Paul Ash, the son of the company founders, told the Post that the stores on the north side of the block, in the base of the parking garage, must vacate soon because the landlord, identified as Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, is “planning a condo.” The Post said the Rockefeller Group, which owns the Sam Ash storefronts on the south side of the block, is also assembling lots for development.

The asking rent for the space, which was listed by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Jeffrey Roseman, was $90 per square-foot. “Sam Ash was flirting with [a possible move] for years,” Roseman told the Post. “They needed to figure out what to do for a permanent Manhattan home with no ax over their heads.” [Post]