Crain's New York - April 29, 2013 - (Page 9)

REAL ESTATE DEALS W. 34th store rents crack $1K ceiling tourist-clogged strip of West 34th Street has joined the handful of places in the city where asking rents for a mere square foot of retail space now extend to four digits. It joins Fifth Avenue, Times Square, Madison Avenue and, most recently, SoHo in the $1,000-a-square-foot-and-up club. Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group has signed a 10-year deal for 1,800 square feet at 112 W. 34th St., between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. The asking rent for the spot, directly across from Macy’s, was $1,000 per square foot. The storefront formerly housed a Billabong clothing store. While few spaces can command such sums, last fall the Real Estate Board of New York reported that average asking rents on West 34th Street had taken off, hitting $683 a square foot, up 42% from the fall of 2012. “Thirty-fourth Street is in the midst of a massive retail renaissance,” said Anthony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, which supervises the portfolio of W&H Properties, owner of the space. “Better name-brand retailers are populating the corridor,” he added, citing the draw of tourists and a growing number of corporate office tenants. Urban Outfitters recently inked a deal nearby at 3 Herald Square. This will be the sixth Swatch store in Manhattan. The company also operates two retail outposts in Queens. The new space is expected to open for business at the end of the second quarter. Swatch was represented in negotiations by Brad Mendelson and Alan Schmerzler of Cushman & Wakefield. Ian Lerner and Joanne Podell, also of Cushman, represented the landlord. —adrianne pasquarelli The firm had outgrown its old office at 158 W. 27th St., near Seventh Avenue, which is about twothirds the size of the new space.The company wanted to stay in the area, but finding affordable space in Chelsea proved difficult, thanks to the likes of Google and the High Line. “They definitely wanted to stay in the 20s, and this was a really good value,” said And Partners’ broker Jeff Buslik, a director at Adams & Co. “It was definitely a value play.” The new offices are located on the top floor of the 12-story building, a space that not only boasts windows on three sides but also has skylights. “Their new space is much brighter,” Mr. Buslik said. “The buildings are a little smaller east of Park [Avenue], and the light is much better.” James Buslik, principal at Adams & Co., represented the landlord, Kofler Associates. The asking rent in the 60,000-square-foot, 1942 A Midtown south tenant flees east In midtown south, the advice being given to many price-conscious office tenants is a riff on the old Horace Greeley line: “Go east, young firms.” That’s just what And Partners did when the digital design and marketing firm signed a 10-year lease for 5,200 square feet at 121 E. 24th St., between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue. BARE BONES 53RD ST. AND THIRD AVE., BROOKLYN ASKING RENT; TERM: $20s per square foot; not disclosed SQUARE FEET: 39,200 TENANT; REP: Alta Bicycle Share; Alec Monaghan of CBRE Group Inc. LANDLORD; REP: MWC Management Corp.; inhouse representation by Michael Coleman BACK STORY: Alta, the operator of New York’s new bike-sharing program Citi Bike, will set up headquarters for the program on three floors of the building, according to The Wall Street Journal. 650 FIFTH AVE. ASKING RENT; TERM: Not disclosed; 11 years SQUARE FEET: 11,300 TENANT; REP: Metropolitan Real Estate; Paul Kotcher of Brickman Associates LANDLORD; REPS : 650 Fifth Avenue Company; Zachary Freeman, Paul Haskin and Robert Stillman of CBRE Group Inc. BACK STORY: The real estate investment firm will move its New York headquarters to the 29th floor of the 36-story building, according to The Commercial Observer. building is $45 per square foot.That compares with average asking rents for class B space in Chelsea of 118-35 QUEENS BLVD. ASKING RENT; TERM: Mid-$30s per square foot; 10 years SQUARE FEET: 4,200 TENANT; REP: Central Medical Services of Westrock; Noel Caban of Winick Realty Group LANDLORD; REP: Muss Development; in-house representation by Nicholas Forelli BACK STORY: The healthcare-services provider will move into its new ninthfloor space at the Forest Hills, Queens, tower in May. $61.77 per square foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield. —matt chaban SMALL BUSINESS For some restaurants, narrowly focusing a menu pays off— but there are risks BY RACHEL WEINGARTEN E ateries that focus on one or two foods—whether yogurt or hero sandwiches—are common in the franchise world. But that trend has also caught on among privately owned restaurants in the city, from mainstays like Peanut Butter & Co. on Sullivan Street in Manhattan (whose owner, Lee Zalben, was a winner of Crain’s annual Top Entrepreneurs competition in 2011) to the Meatball Shop, near Union Square. Colette Cyrus-Burnett has profited from the trend. A former branch manager for Bank of America, the self-proclaimed “wings connoisseur” opened her first 500square-foot Super Wings NY restaurant on Union Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in September 2009. Tapping into what she learned watching her mother cook while she was growing up, she built a tightly edited menu where wings play a starring role. “I’m from the Caribbean and couldn’t find flavors that spoke to that,” said Ms. CyrusBurnett, who is from Trinidad and Tobago. From sandwiches to truffles After her first restaurant took off, she opened a second, 2,500square-foot outpost on Utica Avenue, in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, in 2012. Selling her wings for $4.99 a halfAVERAGE COST pound, she estiof a dinner, per mates sales for person, in NYC each store at (including tip and tax) in 2012 about $500,000 Source: Zagat per year and says her business is profitable.“The only thing you need is a good product and good customer service,” she said. Very focused menus have caught on among restaurants in widely varying niches. They range from Manhattan’s La Maison du Croque Monsieur, a Greenwich Village bistro dedicated to the French grilledham-and-cheese sandwich, to Max Brenner,near Union Square,which is themed entirely on chocolate and sells truffles, sauces and more. Consumers “are looking for a destination that does something really well,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice president for Tech- $43.46 nomic, a food-industry research and consultancy firm. Given how food trends come and go, the stakes are high for opening a restaurant focused on one food— one reason that they ultimately make up a small portion of specialty restaurants, Mr.Tristano added.“To succeed, you need to specialize in one product and do it better than everyone else,” he said. But restaurants with narrow menus have certain built-in advantages. Buying a few ingredients in bulk can be more cost-effective than keeping a wider variety of ingredients in stock, according to Mr. Tristano.That can be a plus in a city like New York, where the cost of doing business is high. And New York is a unique market. “It’s possible these restaurants can exist in New York and not the rest of the United States because of high spending and demand,” said Mr. Tristano. Ask Samantha Stephens. She often found herself eating oatmeal variations for breakfast, lunch and dinner while living on a tight budget at Baruch College and trying to reverse unhealthy freshman-year eating habits. After graduation, while working as an executive assistant at JPMorgan Chase, Ms. Stephens began noticing local restaurants focused on selling one food. “I RECIPE FOR SUCCESS: Customers are flocking to Colette Cyrus-Burnett’s two Super Wings NY restaurants. thought, why hasn’t anyone done this with oatmeal?” she recalled. Upscale oatmeal Ms. Stephens left her job, took business-management classes at NYU’s School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies and attended the French Culinary Institute’s Pastry Arts program.Last June, she opened OatMeals, a sevenemployee restaurant in Greenwich Village where dishes like blueberrymaple-walnut-flavored oatmeal are staples of the menu. Selling signature oatmeal dishes for $4 to $6.75 a bowl, as well as buck ennis Singular sensations cookies, scones and breads, the 450square-foot restaurant has been generating about $1,000 in sales daily and is close to breaking even, said Ms. Stephens.Watching chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks dive into selling oatmeal “reaffirmed what I already knew,” she said.“People want to eat healthy.” The trick, of course, will be getting customers to make oatmeal a frequent part of their regime. Ⅲ To sign up for Crain’s SMALL BUSINESS newsletter, go to www.crainsnewyork.com/smallbiz. April 29, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 9 http://www.crainsnewyork.com/smallbiz

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - April 29, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
REAL ESTATE DEALS
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: EDUCATION
THE LIST
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crain's New York - April 29, 2013