Smith & Wollensky owner signs lease for new eatery in West Village

Restaurateurs ink latest space at 2 Bank Street

 2 Bank Street and Alan Stillman (Credit: Getty Images, Lee & Associates)
2 Bank Street and Alan Stillman (Credit: Getty Images, Lee & Associates)

The restaurant group behind the iconic Smith & Wollensky steakhouse and popular eateries like Quality Meats and Quality Eats is planning to open a new restaurant in the West Village.

Quality Branded signed a lease for 5,600 square feet spread across the ground floor and lower level at 2 Bank Street, according to the brokers who negotiated the deal for landlord Sky management.

Lee & Associates’ Brad Schwarz negotiated the deal with James Ficelman.

Asking rent for the space was $200 per square foot, and the lease has a term of 15 years. Taryn Brandes of Brand Urban represented Quality Branded.

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Quality Branded was founded in 2007 by the father-and-son team of Michael and Alan Stillman, the latter of whom started out as a restaurateur in the 1960s when he launched the first TGI Friday’s.

He opened the stalwart steakhouse Smith & Wollensky in 1977 and the Quality Branded chain now operates several locations across the city, including the Quality Eats restaurant in the West Village at 19 Greenwich Avenue, a few blocks from the new Bank Street location.

The company last year signed a 20-year lease for nearly 10,000 square feet in Midtown at Fisher Brothers’ 1345 Sixth Avenue.