It’s with no glee that we report one more obvious delay in reopening the long-lasting Waldorf-Astoria Lodge. The doorways received’t swing broad once more till September, in line with our on-the-ground sources.
Property proprietor Daija Insurance coverage Group and lodge administration firm Hilton for the previous few months touted a “spring” reopening, which our sources mentioned would have been in Could.
The mysterious postponement follows earlier failures to reopen the lodge way back to in 2021 as the house owners first promised. It wasn’t clear whether or not a deadly building accident in early January, which resulted in a Division of Buildings short-term stop-work order, contributed to the newest go-slow.
Not one of the delays are the fault of Hilton, which yearns to see the Artwork Deco Park Avenue landmark reopened because the flagship of its ever-growing, worldwide Waldorf-Astoria Motels & Resorts model. Blame is as an alternative due Chinese language house owners with little if any actual property experience.
Anbang Insurance coverage purchased the property for practically $2 billion in 2014 and closed it for restoration and partial rental conversion two years later. The Beijing bosses later imprisoned Anbang’s chief for fraud and corruption and changed it with Daija.
Douglas Elliman, the unique advertising and marketing agent for the property’s 375 newly-created rental flats, trumpeted this month that the primary three unit gross sales had closed for a complete of $7 million.
However the lodge’s reservation web site lists no guest-room availability till Sept. 1. A spokesperson instructed us in December, “As we move closer to our opening date, we anticipate accepting reservations for dates beginning in spring 2025.” The reps didn’t get again to us this time.
One other query mark hangs over the Waldorf’s deliberate ground-floor American brasserie, named Lex Yards. It’s to be helmed by Gramercy Tavern chef Michael Anthony, whom we couldn’t attain.
The opening is meant to coincide with the lodge reopening, however it wasn’t recognized whether or not the restaurant would open earlier than the lodge’s visitor rooms.
Jane Avenue Capital’s 67% enlargement to about 1 million sq. ft at Brookfield’s 250 Vesey St. lent a much-needed ray of optimism to the sagging downtown workplace market.
The lease, first reported by Bloomberg, ended suspense over the place the worldwide buying and selling agency would stretch its wings. We beforehand wrote that Jane Avenue was exploring next-door 300 Vesey St. for progress.
Till final week’s signing, Downtown noticeably sat out Manhattan’s winter leasing growth. January noticed general borough exercise of two.61 million sq. ft, or 59% forward of the five-year month-to-month common, in line with CBRE.
However massive offers have been all in Midtown and Midtown South, which recorded quantity that was up 18% and an incredible 166% respectively over January 2024.
Downtown leasing in January was a paltry 315,000 sq., down 3% over the month in 2024, CBRE reported.
You is perhaps uninterested in Realty Examine reporting big restaurant leases earlier than anybody else – resembling our story final week about Morimoto returning to town in an enormous approach at 1255 Broadway– however right here we go once more.
Maple Hospitality Group signed a lease for 12,000 sq. ft at Vornado’s 1290 Sixth Ave. on the West 51st Avenue, south-facing facet. MHG owns 4 totally different eatery manufacturers together with its Chicago flagship Maple & Ash, which is “redefining today’s steakhouse experience,” the corporate says.
MHG additionally owns modern-Italian restaurant Monarch in Dallas. It wasn’t instantly recognized which idea shall be at 1290 Sixth.
Vornado’s busy with $45 million in new tenants’ facilities on the tower the place the Trump Group holds a 30% passive stake. (The Maple restaurant shall be utterly public.) The tower’s 2 million sq. ft of places of work are about 90% leased. 5 Iron Golf not too long ago signed for a 13,000 square-foot facility as we reported in September.
We questioned what would change Charlie Palmer’s defunct steakhouse on the Durst Group’s One Bryant Park. The group behind celebrated, three-location Japanese restaurant Momoya simply signed for five,000 sq. ft of indoor and out of doors area there, the owner introduced.
“For the first time since we opened One Bryant Park [in 2009], the spectacular restaurant space at the base of the building became available last year. We knew the Momoya team’s vision would be a perfect fit for the Bryant Park neighborhood,” mentioned Durst Group president Jody Durst. Momoya president KwangHo Lee cited the tower’s “architectural distinction and substantial commercial potential of the location.”
Lee operates Momoya areas in Chelsea, Soho and the Higher West Aspect, in addition to high-end kaiseki spot Kappo Sono in Union Sq. and three outposts of informal sushi idea Glad Tuna.
It wasn’t but recognized what type the brand new restaurant shall be when it opens later this 12 months. The area shall be utterly redesigned, Durst mentioned.
One Bryant Park’s 2.35 million-square ft are totally leased. Sinvin Actual Property’s Christopher Owles repped the Momoya group. Durst was repped in-house by Tom Bow, Rocco Romeo, and Nora Caliban.
