Retailer Nordstrom has shelled out $102.5 million for the site of its planned Midtown flagship store which will anchor Extell Development’s residential condominium skyscraper at 225 West 57th Street. Seattle-based Nordstrom’s New York store will occupy the first seven floors of the 88-story tower that will stretch 1,550 feet, according to property records.
Nordstrom said its new outpost, slated to open in 2018, will have 175,000 square feet of floor space, according to the retailers’ public filings seen by the New York Post, which reported the transaction. When Nordstrom first announced the deal last year, the store was set to be 285,000 square feet, and Nordstrom execs said the store needed to be “at least 225,000 square feet” to make sense, as The Real Deal reported at the time.
A spokesman for Barnett’s Extell Development didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The developer had recently cleared the way for the Nordstrom deal by paying $25 million for the Beethoven piano building at 232 West 58th Street.
The price for land — about $586 per square foot — indicates that the sale may be merely a down payment, the Post said, or a sort of insurance policy for the retailer, should anything go awry in the development process. The department store said it planned to buy the floors as a commercial condominium when the agreement was first announced.
Gary Barnett’s Extell has recently been under investigation for receiving a tax abatement intended to spur residential development in underserved areas for his ultraluxury One57 condos, down the street from the Nordstrom site. [NYP] – Hiten Samtani