Premier Equities’ UES retail site hits market for $50M

Property offers possible resi addition; fashion brand Halston Heritage could be booted

From left: 1122 Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side, Yoav Oeslner and Glenn Tolchin
From left: 1122 Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side, Yoav Oeslner and Glenn Tolchin

Premier Equities is asking $50 million for a two-story Upper East Side retail building with air rights that would allow it to be redeveloped with as many as 11 floors of apartments on top, The Real Deal has learned.

The 4,200-square-foot property at 1122 Madison Avenue, between 83rd and 84th streets, offers 35 feet of frontage and 22,580 as-of-right square feet.

If additional air rights are purchased, square footage at the property could total 27,000 square feet, according to Yoav Oelsner, executive vice president at JLL. Air rights would allow for the development of a 13-story building, he added.

The New York Capital Markets Group at JLL, including Oelsner, Glenn Tolchin and Richard Baxter, is marketing the site as a possible residential project.

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“The property is immediately outside the Metropolitan Museum Historic District, which enables a developer to build as-of-right without any necessary approvals,” Oelsner said.

A deal would provide the new owner with an early termination option for the building’s sole tenant, Los Angeles-based luxury fashion brand Halston Heritage. The tenant opened its New York flagship on the two floors last year. The triple-net lease – if the buyer opts not to terminate it early – is set to expire in 2022.

Retail rent in the building is roughly $500 per square foot, which is below market for the area, Oelsner said.

Premier, a Midtown-based real estate firm led by Uzi Ben Abraham and Yaron Jacobi, paid $13 million for the building in 2012, records show. Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities and women’s clothing retailer Anik Boutique, which formerly occupied the space, are minority owners. Premier could not be reached for comment. In May, the developer partnered with Thor to buy a pair of mixed-use buildings in Soho, as TRD reported.