One Wall Street’s latest target: Target

UPDATED, 2:33 p.m., May 23: Big box retailer Target is in advanced discussions with Macklowe Properties to open a location at One Wall Street, The Real Deal has learned.

Target is looking to take about 35,000 square feet at the base of the building, sources said. The company recently signed on to a 22,500-square-foot store at Essex Crossing, which will be its first location on the Lower East Side.

One source said that Target has a lease out at the One Wall Street location, but the deal is yet to be finalized. Macklowe Properties, with backing from Qatari billionaire and former prime minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber al-Thani, is converting the former office building into a 566-unit residential condominium with retail at the base.

The Target talks, sources said, bring up an interesting potential conflict with grocer Whole Foods, which agreed in July 2016 to take about 44,000 square feet of the Art Deco property’s 150,000-square-foot retail component.

Groceries accounted for about 22 percent of Target’s revenue in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A prominent analyst predicted in January that Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, may look to acquire Target this year, though many other experts believe that’s unlikely to happen. One source speculated on how the presence of a Target, which bills itself as an “upscale discount retailer,” could affect the perception of One Wall as a luxury property. Having Whole Foods as a tenant provides cachet to a building where condo prices are said to range between $2,000 and $3,000 per square foot . Having a Target, however, may not, the source said. A source familiar with the project’s residential marketing however, disputed that interpretation.

RKF’s Robert Futterman, Peter Whitenack and Jackie Totolo are marketing the property’s retail space. RKF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A representative for Macklowe Properties said the firm was in talks with a number of potential retail tenants, “however the only confirmed retail tenant at this time is Whole Foods.”

“We have made it a priority to work with retailers that we believe will be an additional amenity to One Wall Street’s residents and the community more broadly,” the representative added.

A representative of Target said the company has announced plans to open stores in the East Village, Lower East Side, Hell’s Kitchen, the Upper East Side and Kips Bay in 2018 and 2019, but otherwise did not have “any other new-store plans to share.”

“At Target, we continuously explore possible locations for new stores,” the spokesperson said.

Last April, TRD reported that Sephora and Life Time Fitness were in talks to take a combined 90,000 square feet of space at the building. As of last year, Macklowe Properties was in advanced talks with JPMorgan Chase to provide an $850 million construction loan for the project.  The developer has been actively targeting condo buyers in Asia, with sales in the U.S. expected to launch in September.

Mark Maurer contributed reporting.

This story was updated to include a statement from Macklowe Properties.