Premier, Thor plan 31-story UES condo on Third Avenue

Call it the Second Avenue subway effect. After paying $26 million for the final piece of an Upper East Side development site earlier this month, Premier Equities is teaming up with Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities to build a 100,000-square-foot condominium tower with retail at its base.

Thor [TRDataCustom] and Premier, which weighed a sale of the Third Avenue development site last year, are planning a 31-story tower at 1297-1299 Third Avenue, Commercial Observer reported. So far, plans haven’t been filed and sources said the unit count and cost are still being hashed out.

The developers will tap development rights from adjacent properties they own at 1291, 1293 and 1295 Third Avenue, low-rise buildings that will also be converted into condos. Thor and Premier also plan to change up retail at the site. The pub J.G. Melon will stay at 1291 Third Avenue, but French bakery Francois Payard Patisseries at 1293 Third was bought out.

Premier, led by Yaron Jacobi and Uzi Ben-Abraham, has spent the last few years piecing together the development site, which they briefly shopped last year with Meridian Capital Group.

Property records show the firm shelled out more than $62 million for the Upper East Side assemblage, which includes 1291, 1293, 1295, 1297 and 1299 Third, as well as 204 East 75th Street.

Premier bought the final two pieces of the assemblage — 1297 and 1299 Third — earlier this month, as The Real Deal reported. Thor declined to comment and Premier did not return a request for comment.

The Upper East Side is experiencing a building boom, thanks to the new subway station, which opened Jan. 1.

According to StreetEasy, the median rent near the subway has jumped 27 percent to $2,520 per month.  [CO] – E.B. Solomont