Cheese restaurant owes TF Cornerstone $24M on 387 PAS space

The problem is that they didn’t cut the cheese. Or pay the rent, for that matter.

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled yesterday that cheese-focused French restaurant Artisinal Fromagerie Bistro owes landlord TF Cornerstone over $24 million in rent for a Park Avenue South restaurant it never opened.

The judge found the restaurant liable for all rent plus real estate tax escalations for the 10,500-square-foot lease, which it signed in 2015 and runs through 2031, according to the Commercial Observer.

Artisanal was going to open a French restaurant at TF Cornerstone’s 387 Park Avenue South in 2016, but instead filed for bankruptcy that year and again in 2017, both of which were dismissed.

“That such amounts may be excessive is tenant’s own fault, as it chose to prolong this litigation (and thus made it more expensive) by baselessly running to federal court three times,” the judge wrote in her decision.

The retail space is back on the market with an asking rent of $225 per square foot, according to CO. [CO] — James Kleimann