Fifth Avenue

The falling dollar can’t stop Fifth Avenue, so it seems.

The midtown retail strip once again tops a list of the world’s most expensive shopping strips, according to a report by brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. It beat out Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, the Avenue des Champs Elysées in Paris, and New Bond Street in London.

Rent on Fifth between 49th and 59th streets costs stores about $1.5 million a year, the report found, with average rents hitting $1,500 a square foot, up 11 percent from a year earlier.  read more »

Here is a clip of Michael Bloomberg chatting with Tom Brokaw at Cooper Union last night explaining why being mayor in New York is better than being the top official in the country.

Bloomberg explained that if, say, he wanted to change the direction of traffic on Fifth Avenue, “it may be a dumb idea, but tomorrow morning, there’d be a cop on every corner. Every sign would be changed. I mean, it would go northbound.” After some laughter from the audience, he said, “Presidents can’t do that.”

Gawker reports that Forbes will announce it's selling its headquarters at 60 Fifth Avenue and is in talks to build a new headquarters in the city.

An anonymous tipster on Gawker said:  read more »

Joseph Moinian has officially closed on 417 Fifth Avenue.

The developer dropped $125 million for the 11-story, 392,000-square-foot building, according to city records.

The Observer reported way back in February when this deal went to contract. The building sits on the corner of 38th Street and some of its main tenants are a 10-year-old boy’s dream come true: Atari and Marvel Entertainment.  read more »

Fifth Avenue in midtown remains the most expensive corridor on Earth for retailers to rent along, but Madison Avenue, for the first time, isn't too far behind. A recent report from brokerage Cushman & Wakefield said the average asking rent for retail space on Madison Avenue in midtown was $1,019 a square foot annually by the middle of 2007. That's the first time the average has passed the $1,000 mark, and is a $134 increase from mid-2006.  read more »

If you tour the model residences of 995 Fifth Avenue, chances are you will buy a unit in the building, according to Extell’s Gary Barnett.

Maybe he’s right.

Over half of the 26 units in the Upper East Side development have sold, according to a press release. In just 30 days, over $100 million in sales have been recorded.

The residences, which start out at $12 million, range in size from 4,100 to 8,400 square feet and there is a 7,000-square-foot penthouse with a 5,000-square-foot outdoor terrace.

Occupancy is scheduled for 2008.  read more »

A condo has finally and officially sold in the renovated Plaza Hotel. While many units are under contract in the refurbished hotel, this is the first sale that has officially closed.

The sale appeared in city records on June 21 for $11.2 million. The buyer is listed as Hampshire Industries.  read more »

Saks announced this week that its flagship Fifth Avenue location is vastly expanding its shoe department to encompass the entire eighth floor.

Sorry, evening wear: you've just been trampled by an onslaught of designer pumps!

The extended footwear selection, set to debut in August, will be sooo huge that it will have its own zip code, 10022-SHOE -- "the first floor to be granted its own designated zip code by the United States Post Office," according to a press release; yet a Saks spokesperson admitted that it might not be the biggest shoe floor in the city.  read more »

Has a metropolis ever had such a lengthy era of debauched prosperity? Will the bubbly prices of hard-boiling uptown real estate ever simmer down? No. According to a source, a condo at the newly-refurbished Plaza Hotel has gone to contract for at least $50 million, which quite easily makes it the biggest apartment sale ever in New York City.  read more »

College dropout David Geffen already has $4.6 billion (plus a song penned for him by Joni Mitchell). And, according to deeds filed today, he now has $37.5 million from alliterative Blackstone Group co-founder Pete Peterson.

The deal represents the second-biggest co-op sale in New York City history, behind only Rupert Murdoch's $44 million buy at 834 Fifth.

In exchange, Mr. Peterson has the 12-room duplex penthouse at 810 Fifth Avenue, which fickle Mr. Geffen bought just last year for $31.5 million. Most recently, in an article last week in the NY Sun, Mr. Geffen was said to be selling for only $34 million. Such chump change!

Despite his steep price, this buyer belongs in the building. As New York magazine pointed out when the deal was first rumored, the co-op building used to house Richard Nixon, the Blackstone man’s boss when he was the Secretary of Commerce.

Fittingly, Governor Nelson Rockefeller was once in the penthouse: Nelson’s little brother David preceded Mr. Peterson as a chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations; and older brother John III was a pal of the Blackstone boy’s too.