If one celebrity-themed restaurant doesn’t work out, just try another.
Thor Equities has leased its roughly 5,300-square-foot retail property at 725 Eighth Avenue to Cabo Wabo Cantina, an eatery founded by rock star Sammy Hagar, according to the company. The lease is for 10 years, and the asking rent was $400 per square foot. The property includes about 2,300 square feet of space on the lower level, bringing the total including this space to about 7,600 square feet.
The building was previously leased to actor Mark Wahlberg’s burger joint Wahlburgers, but the restaurant had been struggling to pay rent at the building and abandoned plans to open a location there in the spring.
The five-story building will be the first Cabo Wabo Cantina location on the East Coast. The restaurant opened its first location in 1990 in Cabo San Lucas, and additional locations are now in Hollywood, Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe as well.
Hagar was inducted into to the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 largely due his contributions to the rock band Van Halen (he is also the songwriter behind the hit song “Mas Tequila,” which means “more tequila” in Spanish).
The building is located close to Times Square and Broadway in the Theater District. Thor paid $13 million to acquire the retail condo in 2013. The real estate firm also owns retail nearby on the ground floor of ROW NYC at 700 Eighth Avenue.
Thor recently hired HFF to market 21 properties on Coney Island between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk and West 10th and West 15th Streets. The firm also sold a Williamsburg property to RedSky Capital earlier this year for $32.25 million.