Retail

An anonymous restaurateur dishing to Vanity Fair on developer El-Ad's efforts to drum up interest in the Plaza Hotel's swank Oak Room and Oak Bar [via Eater]:

“They said, Well, if you don’t take it, Danny Meyer [owner of Manhattan’s Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern] is going to take it. And then I’d call Danny Meyer and he’d be like, I don’t want that place. I told them I might look at it, but there’s no way I’ll take it.… And then they’d say, O.K., [renowned chef] Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] is going to take it. So I’d call Jean-Georges. It’s like they’re too stupid to realize that it’s a small community of restaurateurs. And I can just pick up the phone and ask them!”

State Liquor Authority Chairman Daniel Boyle, ranked No. 21 on The Observer's 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate, has lost some clout in the apparent political fallout from his unsuccessful fight to sink the Cipriani family's restaurant empire.

According to the New York Post, fellow SLA commissioners Noreen Healey and Jeanique Greene "sprung a surprise resolution to strip Boyle - the sole board member to vote against the Ciprianis - of all powers previously delegated to him to conduct authority business. Instead, the resolution required approval of the full three-member board for any actions."  read more »

From the Wall Street Journal: "Friday could be black for retailers in more ways than one. Traditionally it is the day that retailers start to break even for the year. This time it could be the moment when some accept reality and start making plans to scale back. For those that do, there is a serious concern: exposure to long store leases. That can become a real problem for retailers cutting expansion plans and closing stores, many of which are leased for 10 years or longer."

"Your heart almost gets ripped out every time these things happen," said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, calling just past deadline on Tuesday to comment on the hallowed P & G bar's looming departure from its longstanding location at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 73rd Street.

"Many patrons of P & G call me all the time," Ms. Brewer said. "Even though it's not leaving the neighborhood, I hate to have it move -- and I don't know what happens with the sign."

The bar's beaming red, yellow and green "Cafe Bar" sign has illuminated the corner since 1942 and is widely considered a neighborhood landmark; its fate is now up in the air as the bar's owners plan to relocate to 380 Columbus Avenue after a fruitless two-year struggle to stay put.  read more »

Recession or not, when Erin Lima makes the trip from Philadelphia to New York City, “shopping is inevitable.”

“Every time you come here you have to,” she said, while browsing the handbag section of Bergdorf Goodman on Saturday with her husband in tow. “You can’t help yourself.”

The Limas and another couple got “the best deal ever” on a weekend at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Battery Park City, she said: $250 a night on a deluxe suite overlooking the park, with a cook-to-order breakfast and free drinks during cocktail hour included in the rate. “Can you stand it?” Ms.  read more »

On Monday, the door to the new and expanded Beacon's Closet, a consignment shop now on the corner of Warren Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, opened. Along with a burst of cold air came not a customer but a stink bomb.

"All I heard was a bang and then ahhhh," said Tiffany, a blonde, tweed-laden shopgirl, as she mimicked the reaction by covering her face with both hands. Though, she added, customers continued shopping despite the stinky interruption.

Retailers across Brooklyn hope that will prove true for consumers this holiday season, despite the foul retail forecast.

"I think there's a certain amount of fear in everybody that people will not come out and spend," said Peter Meyer, chair of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and a president at TD North Bank.  read more »

Developer Curtis Bashaw, who aimed to lure more New Yorkers to the Jersey Shore this past summer with the opening of his trendy Atlantic City hotel The Chelsea, has shelved his latest project, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. Bashaw, the former executive director of New Jersey's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, had been planning a $1 billion casino tower with upscale retail, an opulent spa and convention meeting space, in partnership with former Caesars Entertainment Inc. CEO Wally Barr.  read more »

The Cushman & Wakefield Global Retail Market Report released on Wednesday showed that the average retail rent for space along Fifth Avenue had jumped 23 percent annually in June 2008 to $1,850 a square foot per year. That made that stretch of Manhattan the world's most expensive retail corridor.

But there's also Madison Avenue and East 57th Street, the No. 2 and No. 3 most expensive retail corridors, respectively, in North America. The average per foot annually for Madison was $1,200; and for East 57th, $900. (The next closest in North America is Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive at $670.)

Madison and East 57th's rents, however, were rather static, staying identical in June to the averages 12 months earlier.

On Wednesday night, former Knitting Factory owner Michael Dorf unveiled his new 21,000-square-foot City Winery in the former El Diario space at 143 Varick Street.

The refurbished building, now housing some 250 barrels of wine, is owned by Trinity Church. And, as part of his lease agreement, Mr. Dorf said he is committed to providing the church with one big barrel of custom-made sacramental wine each spring.  read more »

Yesterday, CB Richard Ellis declared Fifth Avenue the world's most expensive stretch of retail based on the rents merchants have to pay. Today, it's Cushman & Wakefield's turn.

From that release: "New York’s Fifth Avenue is once again the world’s most expensive shopping street where retailers can now expect to pay rents of $1,850 per square foot per annum, an increase of 23 percent on 2007."

Fifth Avenue shares the Top 5 with streets in Hong Kong, Paris, Milan and Dublin.  read more »

Be generous to those Fifth Avenue merchants this holiday shopping season: They've got a helluva rent to pay. According to a new CB Richard Ellis report, Fifth Avenue remains the world's most expensive retail destination, with rents reaching $2,200 a square foot annually, more than 75 percent higher than in Hong Kong, the second most expensive.  read more »

When Jongmin Park and his wife Soye moved from Battery Park City to a condo at 90 William Street three years ago, the conversion of the Financial District into a 24-hour retail and residential neighborhood was just beginning.

When they first arrived, all the restaurants and stores closed on the weekends and the neighborhood turned into a “ghost town,” he said. Things have changed so much since then that Mr. Park’s biggest complaint about living there is no longer a lack of amenities, but the nearly constant din of construction.

“This place used to be geared towards billionaires,” Mr.  read more »

State regulators aren't letting up on posh Chelsea club Marquee owners Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss.

The New York State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) has denied the club's request for an all-night permit on New Year's Eve, according to the New York Post.

The agency is "cracking down on applicants" for the permit -- which allows bar operators to skip the usual 4 a.m. last call and keep selling booze an extra four hours on the Jan. 1 holiday -- "denying permits to nightspots that haven't reported their plans to the NYPD, as mandated, or that have serious charges on their records," the Post reports.  read more »

Travel site Newyorkology [via HotelChatter] is reporting that Chelsea's new Gem Hotel has opened this week at 300 West 22nd Street, offering introductory nightly rates starting at $189 -- a veritable steal during the city's usually pricey peak travel season.

Yet, a check of tonight's rates on Expedia.com shows a number of other lodges around town offering reduced rates as low or even lower than the new Gem, another potential indicator of softening demand for rooms in the city.  read more »

The city's ever-wasteful nightlife industry toasts its first eco-friendly venue tonight during a private opening party at Greenhouse in Soho, according to the boozy blog Down By The Hipster.

Back in July, The Observer's Gillian Reagan spoke with Greenhouse operator Jon Bakhshi about his vision for the space, located at 150 Varick Street:  read more »

The flagship store of AT&T Mobility will join Starbucks in the retail part of the Empire State Building. The approximately 3,000-square-foot store is scheduled to open in early 2009, according to GlobeSt, and follows the June opening of an 8,000-square-foot Starbucks.

From the Journal: "Circuit City is the latest of at least 14 major retail chains, including Linens 'n Things and Mervyn's LLC, to file for bankruptcy protection in the past 12 months. Many, such as Linens, are discovering that they can't find financing and are liquidating, slashing tens of thousands of jobs. ... In a teleconference last week with financial institutions, the large liquidation firm Hilco Appraisal Services projected 6,100 U.S. stores -- ranging from mom-and-pops to outlets of big chains -- will close in 2008, up 25% from 2007. It estimated that figure could reach a record 14,000 stores next year. Each store typically employs 20 to 100 full- and part-time workers, say retail experts."

From Commercial Property News: "The outlook for retail REITs continues to darken, as shoppers are cutting back on their trips to the mall amid the economy's struggles."

Gary Gross’ family has operated a pawnshop near Penn Station for more than a century. Though he was not around during the “real depression” in the 1920s, S&G Gross Co. has emerged more or less unscathed from multiple economic downturns in Mr. Gross’ lifetime.

The bursting of the tech bubble in the beginning of the decade barely made a dent in the lending or retail side of what is formally known as the “collateralized loan brokerage” industry—though Mr. Gross’ personal portfolio took a hit. The late 1970s was a “disastrous” time because the cost of lending went up, he said, but it, too, was short-lived.  read more »

One-time demolition target Hotel Pennsylvania continues to line landlord Steve Roth's pockets, giving him even more reason to hang on to the old McKim, Mead & White-designed lodge. Quarterly figures released this week by Mr. Roth's Vornado Realty Trust show the historic hotel generating even more revenue than last year -- a total of nearly $30 million so far through the first nine months of 2008.

That's about $5 million more than it made over the same timeframe in 2007, when the hotel ultimately netted $37.9 million.  read more »

The Real Estate Board of New York issued an oddly upbeat appraisal today of the Manhattan retail market. According to REBNY, which based its report on analysis of data through Sept. 30, asking rents for retail space on Tribeca’s Hudson Street, in Herald Square, and on the Upper West Side increased since 2007.

“[T]he increases in asking rents in prime areas like TriBeCa, Herald Square and the Upper West Side, demonstrates that retailers still want to be in Manhattan,” REBNY President Steven Spinola said in a statement. “Despite the turmoil in the marketplace, asking prices for prime retail space in Manhattan’s most recognizable shopping areas have not been impacted.  read more »

Over lunch at Brasserie 44 last week, Fred Kleisner, CEO of Morgans Hotel Group, pledged to encourage his nearly 6,000 employees at the Royalton, Hudson and other boutique properties around the country to vote on election day.

"In a very nonpartisan way," insisted Mr. Kleisner, who was, nonetheless, proudly sporting his "Obama '08" bracelet.

He even promised to compensate workers for their time spent at the polls.

Sure enough, on Monday afternoon, Mr. Kleisner followed through with a seemingly unbiased e-mail directive to supervisors:  read more »

A whopping 248 voters -- plus children and at least seven baby stollers -- waited in a U-shaped line, stretching from the Fourth Street entrance to PS 51, continuing down the entire block of Fifth Avenue, to a spot halfway around Fifth Street when I arrived at the Park Slope polling place at precisely 7:54 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

It's a neighborhood that eats, drinks and breathes "hope" and "change," from the Obama cookies at Trois Pommes to the temporary Obama phone bank inside the Brooklyn Lyceum. Thus, all the Obama buttons, T-shirts and other paraphernalia along the lengthy line--and only one guy in a McCain cap.  read more »

Photographer John Conn, one of the few Barack Obama-free vendors in Union Square these days, is looking forward to the end of the election. Over the past three months dozens of artistically inclined young thirty-somethings, seasoned street merchants and newly minted idealists have been selling election gear on 17th Street between Broadway and Fourth Avenue, and crowding Union Square stalwarts and artists like Mr. Conn out of the market.

“I want McCain to win because I sell my subway photos on T-shirts and the Obama T-shirts are killing my business,” he said on Monday morning. “I need McCain. I’m kidding, but the Obama T-shirt people take up more spaces that could be occupied by artists.  read more »

From the Journal: "One of the moves is a new loyalty card aimed at Starbucks's most frequent users. In the next few weeks, the company plans to introduce a Starbucks Gold card. Customers will pay a $25 annual membership that will give them 10% off most purchases and other perks. The company also has started selling Starbucks cards at Costco Wholesale Corp. outlets for a 20% discount. [CEO Howard] Schultz said Wednesday he doesn't anticipate the chain will make any changes in its price structure."

From the Wall Street Journal: "How dependent is the museum business on Wall Street and financial-services income? Boards are actually fairly well diversified, but Wall Streeters have been disproportionately generous. The Met's first gallery devoted to contemporary photography, Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall, opened earlier this year; it was endowed chiefly by Robert Menschel, a senior director of Goldman Sachs. ... The ties to financial institution executives are particularly tight at the Museum of Modern Art, which opened its $800 million new building in 2004. It has Mr. Menschel, hedge-fund mogul Leon Black, and Marie-Josée Kravis, the wife of financier Henry Kravis, on its board. Kathy Fuld, wife of disgraced Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld, is a museum vice chairman."

On the heels of Wednesday's Times article, CB Richard Ellis this afternoon released a special report on the cooling Manhattan hotel development market.

The report found at least 17 proposed hotel projects that have been shelved amid "increasing construction costs, tightening capital markets, and a lingering economic downturn." That's a loss of 3,225 rooms that were expected to open by the end of 2010.

"This represents an approximate 30 percent decrease from previous estimates cited in the marketplace," according to the report.

Still, between now and the end of 2010, 69 Manhattan hotels with 10,836 rooms are expected to open. And up to 30 new hotels offering 4,860 rooms are expected to open in 2009 alone.

From The Times: "The glassy Cooper Square Hotel near Astor Place will initially charge $275 a night when it opens next month with 85 of its 146 rooms completed — a steep discount from the $425 rate it had projected for the finished hotel. One of the developers, Matt Moss, said he can afford to wait out the downturn because less than 60 percent of the cost was financed. 'We have made a long-term commitment to this project, this neighborhood,' he said. 'We plan on being here for a long time. The cycle will come back.'"

More on the future of the city's hotels with hospitality expert John Fox in this week's print Observer.

From The Times: "Since mid-September, almost in parallel with the stock market turmoil, demand for fancy hotel rooms has plummeted. Patrick Ford, the president of Lodging Econometrics, said that luxury hotel room revenue rates 'slowed in mid-September and really ratcheted downward during October.' ... Even in the best of economic times, most luxury hotels were not sustained by business from rich leisure travelers. Instead, those hotels depended on corporate travel, including meetings and conferences. But with the economic downturn, companies have been cutting back on travel expenses. The hotels have also experienced a drop-off in business from affluent international leisure and business travelers, as economies around the globe slow and the value of the dollar rises."

Originally a church, later an infamous nightclub, and more recently the site of a planned mini-mall, the gothic 12,000-square-foot building best known as the Limelight is again headed for an uncertain future.

Nightlife veteran Steve Lewis reports for BlackBook.com that a deal between landlord Ben Ashkenazy and the New York Artist Series has fallen through.

Perhaps not surprisingly, either, according to Mr. Lewis:

The rent of $2.4 million a year seemed high to me, considering the negative history of the place...

 read more »

From GlobeSt: "'We’re entering something of a Darwinian period for retail,' said Joshua Podell, vice president of real estate at Jones Apparel Group. He predicted a 'very rough' 12 months ahead, as did Patrick Breslin, president of the Eastern retail group for Grubb & Ellis. The assessment by Stephen Ifshin, chairman and co-founder of DLC Management Corp., was along similar lines: 'Only the strong will survive.' Further shakeout among retailers is ahead of us, he said, and Breslin said this holiday selling season will be make-or-break time for many marginally-performing stores."

The Times' Charles Bagli dropped this nugget of negativism on us over the weekend: "Until recently, tourism had been a bright spot in the city’s increasingly gloomy economic picture, fueled largely by foreign tourists taking advantage of a weak dollar. But many hotel operators have begun reporting that bookings for the next few months, traditionally the strongest part of the year, are falling below last year’s levels. Cancellations are also on the rise, and corporate travel executives are negotiating for steeper discounts on room contracts for 2009."

Is this the best time for all those new hotel rooms to be opening (as many as 37 in 2009)? Just askin'.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal's Laura Landro drops by for a review of the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca, co-owned by none other than Bobby De Niro. Ms. Landro seems rather impressed by it all ("We gave high marks to the comfy Dux bed, the marble bath with its Moroccan tile floors, dual-head shower... and short but deep soaking tub, and the room's large high-definition TV... Our higher-end room was spacious by the standards of many downtown hotels with rooms the size of closet") but questions whether the timing of its debut, through no fault of the hotel's, was a little off.

It opened in April, just after the Bear Stearns collapse and a few months before the financial calamity erupted next-door in the Financial District.

On a recent midweek evening amid the financial meltdown on Wall Street, things were a lot more sedate, with few guests in evidence. Now, with the threat of global recession, it may be tough to attract the foreign visitors and expense-account clientele that have made New York a boomtown for such high-end properties in recent years. The Greenwich's $6,500-a-night duplex suite and a still-unfinished 2,500-square-foot penthouse with a roof hot tub could be a tough sell.

GQ-crowned "Modern Hotel Maestro" Klaus Ortlieb hosted roughly 60 guests at his Tribeca loft on Wednesday night in a preview of the yet-unfinished Cooper Square Hotel's culinary offerings.

Mr. Ortlieb, 50, a partner in the hotel's management company, MK Hotels, suggested the somewhat divisive 21-story, 145-room, Carlos Zapata-designed lodge may be just weeks away from opening.

Among other permitting issues, developer Matt Moss, who was also on hand for the festivities, said he was still trying to obtain a certificate of occupancy. (Mr. Moss' original partner in the project, Crescent Hotel developer Gregory Peck, did not attend.)

Los Angeles-based chef Govind Armstrong commandeered Mr. Ortlieb's kitchen and home office for the fete, serving up samples of porterhouse, squab and a creamy celery soup with strips of bacon.

The hotel's forthcoming Table 8 restaurant will be Mr. Armstrong's third location after L.A. and Miami.

An upstart innkeeper on trendy Smith Street is facing off with transit officials over the decision to put a bus stop right in front of his hotel's entrance.

Bertrand Nelson, general manager of Hersha Hospitality Trust's newly opened Nu Hotel, tells The Brooklyn Paper that his lobby is filling up with bus fumes and that bus riders are fouling up the hotel's restrooms.

“It’s a weird place for a bus stop,” [Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Joe] Chan told The Brooklyn Paper at the Nu Hotel’s opening party last month. “For a guest’s first experience [to be] inhaling a bunch of bus fumes — it’s less than an ideal way for them to experience a morning in Downtown Brooklyn.  read more »

"I refuse to sell the soul of Oz," a defiant Jennifer Oz LeRoy, the alluring 30-year-old owner of Tavern on the Green, said in an interview with Page Six Magazine.

As The Observer reported last year, Ms. LeRoy is facing a potential bidding war over the iconic Central Park eatery--the second-highest-grossing independently run restaurant in the country in 2007--which she inherited from her flamboyant father, the late Warner LeRoy.

Many of the city's most illustrious restaurateurs are said to be in the running for the lucrative concessions contract with the city's Parks Department, including Gramercy Tavern operator Danny Meyer and Boathouse owner Dean Poll.

Yet, the two possible contenders quoted by the magazine seemed hesistant at best about taking over the sprawling 23,000-square-foot culinary behemoth.  read more »

Book retailers, including Borders and Barnes & Noble, are pumping up financial advice books, often displaying the titles in store windows and at key points around the selling floor. From the Wall Street Journal this morning:

"It's been a hot category since the crisis first hit," said Michael D'Agostini, [Borders'] business-book buyer. "We are reordering more in order to keep up with -- and get ahead of -- the demand."

Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest book retailer, said it has sent a list of titles appropriate for the current crisis to its 796 store managers, and has suggested they set up displays where appropriate. A company spokeswoman said that sales of such titles are going up.

This demand for financial advice books comes on the heels of an ebb in consumer desire for books on how to strike it rich in the housing market.

Rival operators appear to be scavaging over what's left of the bankrupt Scores empire.

Robert Gans, owner of Manhattan's Penthouse Executive Club, has applied for a liquor license at the former Scores West strip club at 533-535 West 27th Street.

Meanwhile, proprietors of the Las Vegas-based strip club Sapphire--who earlier caused such an uproar over plans to open a new location on West 23rd Street--are seeking a license at the original Scores location at 333 East 60th Street.

Both applicants are scheduled to appear before the State Liquor Authority (SLA) next week.

State regulators earlier stripped Scores boss Richard Goldring of his license at the West Side location, after employees were arrested on prostitution charges.  read more »

MTV is sponsoring a contest to promote the upcoming action film Max Payne starring Mark Wahlberg--and talk about the perfect setting for a gritty cop-movie gimmick!

"To celebrate the release of this slick new thriller, MTV is giving one lucky winner and a friend an NYPD trip to New York City. You’ll get flights, two-nights accommodation at the luxurious Hotel Pennsylvania..."

What, you were expecting the posh Hotel Carter?

Now, MTV wasn't around during the Swing Era, but has Kurt Loder and company bothered to peek inside the old Glenn Miller hangout recently?

(Read The Observer's extensive coverage here.)

"Save The Hotel" activist Gregory Jones once took issue with my use of the term "fleabag" to describe the dowdy would-be landmark on Seventh Avenue.

But, come on, luxurious?