Sitt Asset Management paid $11 million for 450 Broadway, a five-story retail building in Soho, sources told The Real Deal today. The sale has not yet hit public records. The 13,760-square-foot property, between Grand and Howard streets, belonged to the late Jacob Wiesenfeld, a textile company owner who purchased the building for an undisclosed sum in 1988.
Sitt Asset plans to fix up 450 Broadway, including redoing the façade, with the aim of signing a net lease for the entire property with a mid- to high-level fashion tenant.
Currently, only the basement and first two levels are occupied: the former owner occupied 2,000 square feet of the building, according to Property Shark, and the ground-floor is home to a beauty supply shop.
That tenant’s lease is due in September 2014, while a tenant on the second-floor is on a month-to-month rental agreement, David Sitt of Sitt Asset said.
Sitt Asset has not ruled out a secondary option of converting the currently vacant upper floors to residential condominiums or rental apartments. The building is zoned as a loft building with retail stores, public records show.
The company has not yet retained a leasing broker, but expects to find one at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual convention in Las Vegas, which kicks off on May 20, Sitt said.
“Soho is probably one of the most sought after retail areas,” he said. “We chose this partly because we love Soho and we love the area, and [Broadway is] probably one of the most high-traffic retail streets in New York, if not the world.”
In fact, a recent TRD analysis found that in the last year Soho was the busiest neighborhood in Manhattan for retail leasing activity.
Ivan Hakimian, the founder of HPNY, negotiated the sale, industry sources said. He did not immediately return a call seeking comment.