Todd English cooking up eatery at 15 Park Row

Half-empty apartment building sold to Atlas Capital for $140M last year

Todd English in front of 15 Park Row (ToddEnglish.com, CityRealty)
Todd English in front of 15 Park Row (ToddEnglish.com, CityRealty)

Todd English is cooking up his latest New York City project, a 20,000-square-foot eatery in the Financial District.

An eatery under the brand signed a lease for the two-story space at 15 Park Row, the New York Post reported. It’s not immediately clear who will operate the space, but are reportedly believed to be a group of investors backing English.

A Meridian Retail Leasing team including James Famularo and Ben Biberaj appeared to be marketing the space. A neighborhood source told the Post the asking rent for the space was $2.5 million per year.

Joe and Rachelle Friedman, owners of the defunct J&R Music World, last year sold the 31-story apartment building at 15 Park Row to investor Atlas Capital Group for about $140 million. In addition to 330 rental apartments, the sale included retail space that served as the home to J&R.

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About half of the building’s apartments were empty at the time of the sale.

English is no stranger to the New York City food scene. In addition to creating the Plaza Hotel Food Hall, English is known for running Todd English’s Figs in Queens and The Stinger Cocktail Bar and Kitchen by Chef Todd English in Hell’s Kitchen. The Post reported English also recently launched a hotel in Las Vegas.

English was previously involved in a dispute at Kushner Companies’ 229 West 43rd Street, where OHM Concession Group alleged in 2018 Kusher used “alternative facts” to renege on promises made about the retail space. OHM signed the 15-year lease in August 2016 after tapping English to open the American Market.

Months later, English backed out of another food hall planned in Chelsea, which came after a server at his Plaza Hotel restaurant in 2017 accused him of sexual harassment. English was also arrested for drunk driving in 2014, according to Eater.

Renowned restaurateur Daniel Boulud is also opening a restaurant in the Financial District to replace Keith mcNally’s Augustine. The French restaurant is expected to open at the Beekman Hotel in the spring.

[NYP] — Holden Walter-Warner