Mr. Fertitta's publicist—one of Mr. Fertitta's publicists?—reached out to The Observer to let us know that Mr. Fertitta has been enjoying an awesome week. Unlike some billionaires, Mr. Fertitta does not just buy a $19.5 million condo and throw in the towel. No way. He also opened a Last Vegas restaurant with his business partner Eva Longoria (quite an improvement over the overweight middle-aged men who usually fill out the business partner category) and hosted a lavish Gulf-coast Mardi Gras party featuring a performance by Kool & the Gang.  And there are pictures!

Mr. Fertitta's latest restaurant—SHe by Mortons at Crystals at CityCenter (got that?) "merges fine dining with a theatrical nightlife experience," according to the website and "fills the void in the Las Vegas market for the guest who expecting a heightened VIP experience."

What does this all mean? Basically, there will be oysters, his and her-sized steak cuts and Shescake (their term, not ours) followed by an "impressive" LED video wall, 32-foot rain curtain and Funktion One sound system.

How can you top that? The question would have bedeviled us for months, but such dilemmas do not flummox the likes of Mr. Fertitta. The answer, of course, is by throwing a Mardi Gras gala for your closest 1,450 friends "including friend, Mark Kelly"—you know, the astronaut, wife of former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords—that features not only a performance by Kool & The Gang, but an aerial strip tease.

The Observer, despite feeling initially depressed by the realization that this week we have merely gone to work, cooked a stir-fry and made it halfway through the most recent issue of New York magazine, found the news of Mr. Fertitta's immeasurably better week uplifting. Mr. Fertitta's dreams may not be our dreams per se, but they are our dreams of how a Texas billionaire should live, dreams that we worried might have died forever in these times when carefully curated tasting menus supplant gender-based cuts of steak and billionaires live in modest Palo Alto homes rather than 164-foot yachts, condos in Galveston and Colorado, country manses in Houston and pied-a-terres in Manhattan. Keep living the dream, Mr. Fertitta.

kvelsey@observer

What New York really needs is a green hotel-condo. Luckily, there's one (and it's 61,000 square feet) under construction at 250 Bowery between Prince and Houston. The design firm is "targeting tourists concerned with environmental responsibility as well as aesthetics." Creepy. [Real Deal]

- Max Abelson

]]>

What New York really needs is a green hotel-condo. Luckily, there's one (and it's 61,000 square feet) under construction at 250 Bowery between Prince and Houston. The design firm is "targeting tourists concerned with environmental responsibility as well as aesthetics." Creepy. [Real Deal]

- Max Abelson

]]> http://observer.com/2007/04/the-afternoon-wrap-thursday-19/feed/ 0 jhanasobserver ff.bmp http://observer.com/2007/03/commercial-market-spawns-crazy-soho-building-sale1000-a-foot/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0400 http://observer.com/2007/03/commercial-market-spawns-crazy-soho-building-sale1000-a-foot/ John Koblin http://www.observer.com/2007/03/commercial-market-spawns-crazy-soho-building-sale1000-a-foot/ A very glam downtown project now has a very glam team to sell it.

The mad marketing genius Michael Shvo is partnering with developer Joseph Moinian to market a planned W Hotel at 123 Washington Street, a source said. Mr. Shvo is expected to market the condominium portion of Mr. Moinian’s condo-hotel.

The brash Mr. Shvo, who made himself famous with sleek marketing for 20 Pine Street and the Bryant Park Tower, revels in a clean and polished style. His marketing peddles to a certain audience—not quite trust-fund kids, but a group, say, that spends its weekend nights flooding the meatpacking district.

Mr. Shvo advertises on his Web site that he’s worked with the Moinian Group before, but this is surely their biggest project together. And now their partnership will decide the success of W’s first splash below 14th Street.

The high-end brand will have company in the once-maligned financial district.

Tiffany & Co., Hermès and Thomas Pink will all open stores there soon. And though a spokesman said no decision has been made, The Real Deal magazine reported last week that Larry Silverstein is converting his 99 Church Street into an enormous 60-story condo-hotel.

IF THERE'S A MAJOR BUILDING SALE, YOU EXPECT it to happen in a part of Manhattan where there are big skyscrapers with high-powered tenants.

But in this muscular real-estate market, a watershed sale can apparently come in the form of a petite, six-story Soho building whose main tenant is Pottery Barn.

A building at the corner of Broadway and Houston, 600 Broadway, is in contract for more than $1,000 per foot at $71 million, a source said.

The sale price per square foot for this 65,000-square-foot building is in an elite territory generally reserved for the highest premium buildings in midtown—a 666 Fifth Avenue or an 825 Eighth Avenue, say.

So what perks does this building have, other than the hordes of weekend shoppers outside it that make crossing Broadway and Houston so daunting?

Well, it sold for exactly that reason: Prime retail rents were the sale’s driving force. Asking rents for ground-floor space on Broadway (in Soho) average $282 per foot, and can go as high as $400 a foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The 123-year-old brick-built 600 Broadway is also recognizable to New Yorkers: It has the DKNY mural on its side, the one that’s been there since 1989.

The new buyer is a group of investors led by Alex Adjmi. The seller is Enterprise Asset Management.

According to city records, Enterprise purchased the building in January for $21 million (well, that’s quite a flip). But two sources said the new sale price was for an amount closer to $40 million.

Though the building is in contract, it is not expected to close for at least another year, a source said. The reason is unclear.

Pottery Barn’s lease runs through 2012, but expect major rent increases when that lease ends or a new and bigger name takes its place, since Mr. Adjmi will certainly look for reasons to justify this large sale price.

Readers of Commercial Breaks have seen head-scratching building sales like this before. When the 90-year-old Rodin Studios, at 200 West 57th Street, sold for $126 million, at more than $1,000 per foot, it was all due to its proximity to Columbus Circle and the big retail money it can command.

But is $1,000 per foot the new standard for Soho? Last June, 131-137 Spring Street sold for $46 million, at $814 per square foot. Those buildings’ retail tenants are Burberry and Diesel.

The Fantastic Four capital-markets team at Cushman & Wakefield—Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Jon Caplan and Scott Latham—brokered the 600 Broadway deal. They declined to be interviewed for this story.

THIS IS QUITE A SHOWDOWN: Donald Trump versus Vornado’s Steve Roth in the heavyweight real-estate legal battle of the 21st century.

Well, sort of.

Last week, Mr. Roth announced that he’s buying, for $1.8 billion, a 70 percent stake in 1290 Avenue of the Americas and a San Francisco office building from a group of Hong Kong investors, Hudson Waterfront Associates. Mr. Trump will retain a 30 percent share in the buildings.

But as part of the agreement, Mr. Roth will have to get involved with the lawsuits that Mr. Trump has filed against those Hong Kong investors, his one-time partners in a riverside development site on the Upper West Side.

In 2005, Hudson Waterfront Associates sold the development for $1.7 billion. Mr. Trump was part owner of the site.

Mr. Trump complained that his partners didn’t get enough money for it, so he did what he often does: He sued them. This didn’t entirely work—all of the lawsuits have been dismissed except one.

So now the interesting part! Mr. Roth paid a below-market rate for 1290 Avenue of the Americas, at $775 per square foot. The reason? As part of the deal with Hudson Waterfront Associates, Mr. Roth will indemnify the investors—or, in other words, he’ll foot all the bills for any further lawsuit that Mr. Trump pushes against them.

So if they go to court, it’s a showdown of Mr. Trump’s money versus Mr. Roth’s money.

Mr. Trump seems determined, too. In the New York Post on Saturday, he commended Mr. Roth on getting a good deal, but added, “Our lawsuit will be successful.”

But it’s not all bad for Mr. Roth. The Hong Kong investors will have to reimburse Mr. Roth if Mr. Trump is successful with any lawsuit regarding disputes over their partnership, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But if Mr. Trump wins any other claims in an appeal, or pushes this further, that’s only more billing hours Mr. Roth will have to cough up to pay for this lawsuit.

]]> A very glam downtown project now has a very glam team to sell it.

The mad marketing genius Michael Shvo is partnering with developer Joseph Moinian to market a planned W Hotel at 123 Washington Street, a source said. Mr. Shvo is expected to market the condominium portion of Mr. Moinian’s condo-hotel.

The brash Mr. Shvo, who made himself famous with sleek marketing for 20 Pine Street and the Bryant Park Tower, revels in a clean and polished style. His marketing peddles to a certain audience—not quite trust-fund kids, but a group, say, that spends its weekend nights flooding the meatpacking district.

Mr. Shvo advertises on his Web site that he’s worked with the Moinian Group before, but this is surely their biggest project together. And now their partnership will decide the success of W’s first splash below 14th Street.

The high-end brand will have company in the once-maligned financial district.

Tiffany & Co., Hermès and Thomas Pink will all open stores there soon. And though a spokesman said no decision has been made, The Real Deal magazine reported last week that Larry Silverstein is converting his 99 Church Street into an enormous 60-story condo-hotel.

IF THERE'S A MAJOR BUILDING SALE, YOU EXPECT it to happen in a part of Manhattan where there are big skyscrapers with high-powered tenants.

But in this muscular real-estate market, a watershed sale can apparently come in the form of a petite, six-story Soho building whose main tenant is Pottery Barn.

A building at the corner of Broadway and Houston, 600 Broadway, is in contract for more than $1,000 per foot at $71 million, a source said.

The sale price per square foot for this 65,000-square-foot building is in an elite territory generally reserved for the highest premium buildings in midtown—a 666 Fifth Avenue or an 825 Eighth Avenue, say.

So what perks does this building have, other than the hordes of weekend shoppers outside it that make crossing Broadway and Houston so daunting?

Well, it sold for exactly that reason: Prime retail rents were the sale’s driving force. Asking rents for ground-floor space on Broadway (in Soho) average $282 per foot, and can go as high as $400 a foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The 123-year-old brick-built 600 Broadway is also recognizable to New Yorkers: It has the DKNY mural on its side, the one that’s been there since 1989.

The new buyer is a group of investors led by Alex Adjmi. The seller is Enterprise Asset Management.

According to city records, Enterprise purchased the building in January for $21 million (well, that’s quite a flip). But two sources said the new sale price was for an amount closer to $40 million.

Though the building is in contract, it is not expected to close for at least another year, a source said. The reason is unclear.

Pottery Barn’s lease runs through 2012, but expect major rent increases when that lease ends or a new and bigger name takes its place, since Mr. Adjmi will certainly look for reasons to justify this large sale price.

Readers of Commercial Breaks have seen head-scratching building sales like this before. When the 90-year-old Rodin Studios, at 200 West 57th Street, sold for $126 million, at more than $1,000 per foot, it was all due to its proximity to Columbus Circle and the big retail money it can command.

But is $1,000 per foot the new standard for Soho? Last June, 131-137 Spring Street sold for $46 million, at $814 per square foot. Those buildings’ retail tenants are Burberry and Diesel.

The Fantastic Four capital-markets team at Cushman & Wakefield—Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen, Jon Caplan and Scott Latham—brokered the 600 Broadway deal. They declined to be interviewed for this story.

THIS IS QUITE A SHOWDOWN: Donald Trump versus Vornado’s Steve Roth in the heavyweight real-estate legal battle of the 21st century.

Well, sort of.

Last week, Mr. Roth announced that he’s buying, for $1.8 billion, a 70 percent stake in 1290 Avenue of the Americas and a San Francisco office building from a group of Hong Kong investors, Hudson Waterfront Associates. Mr. Trump will retain a 30 percent share in the buildings.

But as part of the agreement, Mr. Roth will have to get involved with the lawsuits that Mr. Trump has filed against those Hong Kong investors, his one-time partners in a riverside development site on the Upper West Side.

In 2005, Hudson Waterfront Associates sold the development for $1.7 billion. Mr. Trump was part owner of the site.

Mr. Trump complained that his partners didn’t get enough money for it, so he did what he often does: He sued them. This didn’t entirely work—all of the lawsuits have been dismissed except one.

So now the interesting part! Mr. Roth paid a below-market rate for 1290 Avenue of the Americas, at $775 per square foot. The reason? As part of the deal with Hudson Waterfront Associates, Mr. Roth will indemnify the investors—or, in other words, he’ll foot all the bills for any further lawsuit that Mr. Trump pushes against them.

So if they go to court, it’s a showdown of Mr. Trump’s money versus Mr. Roth’s money.

Mr. Trump seems determined, too. In the New York Post on Saturday, he commended Mr. Roth on getting a good deal, but added, “Our lawsuit will be successful.”

But it’s not all bad for Mr. Roth. The Hong Kong investors will have to reimburse Mr. Roth if Mr. Trump is successful with any lawsuit regarding disputes over their partnership, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But if Mr. Trump wins any other claims in an appeal, or pushes this further, that’s only more billing hours Mr. Roth will have to cough up to pay for this lawsuit.

]]> http://observer.com/2007/03/commercial-market-spawns-crazy-soho-building-sale1000-a-foot/feed/ 0 jhanasobserver http://observer.com/2007/03/the-afternoon-wrap-tuesday-19/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:35:37 -0400 http://observer.com/2007/03/the-afternoon-wrap-tuesday-19/ http://www.observer.com/2007/03/the-afternoon-wrap-tuesday-19/

An artist (with a lot of time and talent on his hands) drew every fire escape in lovely eastern Soho [above]. Click on all his Web site's little boxes if you really like the fiery rustication between Broadway, West Broadway, Houston and Canal. [The Fireladders of Soho, via Gothamist]

- Max Abelson

]]>

An artist (with a lot of time and talent on his hands) drew every fire escape in lovely eastern Soho [above]. Click on all his Web site's little boxes if you really like the fiery rustication between Broadway, West Broadway, Houston and Canal. [The Fireladders of Soho, via Gothamist]

- Max Abelson

]]> http://observer.com/2007/03/the-afternoon-wrap-tuesday-19/feed/ 0 jhanasobserver stairs.JPG http://observer.com/2007/02/the-afternoon-wrap-wednesday-16/#comments Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:47:56 -0400 http://observer.com/2007/02/the-afternoon-wrap-wednesday-16/ http://www.observer.com/2007/02/the-afternoon-wrap-wednesday-16/

[Curbed]

[Gowanus Lounge]

[Brownstoner]

[CNN/Money]

- Tom Acitelli

"I tried to appeal, it won't work," he writes in an e-mail. The LoHo entry is just a shell of itself, linking to a debate over the debate to delete the entry, in which one of the victors explains:

All right. Everybody back to work!

- Matthew Schuerman

Italian denim dealer Diesel has leased 1,600 square feet on Lafayette Street to give its 55DSL line a boutique space all its own.

The line was previously relegated to a small section of Diesel's Union Square location.

"The retailer's 55DSL brand is targeting young men and women with a strong sense of fashion and a hip 'downtown' style," said Robert Cohen of the uber-hip retail brokerage Robert K. Futterman & Associates, which coordinated the deal, in a press release.

The new store, located between Houston and Prince streets, is slated to open this spring.

Totally "hip" press release after the jump.

- Chris Shott

RKF SECURES LEASE FOR DIESEL'S 55DSL AT 281 LAFAYETTE STREET

Firm brings fashionable retailer to prime retail space in New York City's NoLita

New York, January 11, 2007 -- Robert K. Futterman & Associates, LLC (RKF), the nation's leading independent real estate firm specializing in retail leasing, investment sales and consulting services represented Diesel's 55DSL in its lease of 1,600 square feet at 281 Lafayette Street between Houston and Prince Streets in Manhattan's NoLita neighborhood. This is the first retail location for the brand in the United States.

RKF Executive Vice President Robert Cohen and Director Beth Rosen represented the tenant together with Victor Fandel and Lynne Brenner of Fandel Retail Group.

"The retailer's 55DSL brand is targeting young men and women with a strong sense of fashion and a hip 'downtown' style. Lafayette Street is the perfect location for launching Diesel's newest brand in the United States," said Cohen.

Until now a small 55DSL boutique was part of the Diesel store on Union Square. The new 55DSL store is slated to open in the spring of 2007.

About Robert K. Futterman & Associates:

The country's leading independent real estate firm specializing in retail leasing and investment sales, Robert K. Futterman & Associates (RKF) serves a broad spectrum of domestic and global clients in services ranging from national tenant and owner representation to advisory, consulting and disposition. With over $4 billion in aggregate real estate transactions to its credit, RKF has been responsible for identifying scores of real estate opportunities throughout the United States for leading American and international chains, retailers, developers and institutional clients. RKF is headquartered in New York with offices in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Robert K. Futterman & Associates is located at 521 Fifth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10175, telephone: 212.599.3700. www.rkf.com

###

The offending patron had made off with an item not removed from Rapture’s floor-to-ceiling bookcase or freestanding news racks—which were stocked with everything from The Joy of Cooking to Handjobs magazine—but rather from the bar: an open bottle of Rolling Rock.

Like countless locales around the city, the new venue at 200 Avenue A had thrown a New Year’s Eve party, complete with champers and other alcohol—despite the fact that Rapture doesn’t have a liquor license. Yet.

“We had a [licensed] caterer,” explained Mr. Butterick.

The fledgling East Village retailer, which otherwise offers a selection of organic teas and coffees, probably won’t have to outsource its bar services for much longer, however.

Rapture owner Joe Birdsong expects to receive his license to sling suds any day now, as the State Liquor Authority’s four-month-long freeze on processing such permits expired with the change in the calendar year.

The bohemian-style café’s entry into the booze business won’t technically exacerbate what many S.L.A. critics have denounced as a citywide proliferation of liquor licenses in recent years. Mr. Birdsong is simply taking the existing license from the location’s prior tenant, the Clockwork Orange–themed Korova Milk Bar.

Keeping the license at that address was of particular concern to the building’s landlord, Mr. Birdsong said: “The owner doesn’t want to lose the value attached to it.”

Of course, the ability to continue alcohol sales at the site undoubtedly would be a boon to the bookseller, too.

It will certainly help boost Rapture’s revenues during a time of economic uncertainty for many of the city’s independent book stores. Most notably, hallowed midtown literary haunt (and comparatively dry venue) Coliseum Books is scheduled to shutter on Jan. 6, following a weeks-long liquidation sale amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Not that Rapture’s ownership would choose to emphasize the alcoholic content of its business plan, penned by Mr. Birdsong.

In fact, his proposal barely mentions the venue’s “extensive and unique beer and wine menu,” even though his pending permit would grant him the freedom to serve Jägermeister shots or far stiffer drinks, if he wanted to.

A wise strategy. Given the city’s current bar-wary climate, prospective restaurateurs and tavern operators are subject to an ever-increasing degree of scrutiny.

Even a self-described “nice little neighborhood Internet café–bookstore–performance space” is not immune, as Mr. Birdsong found out when he appeared this past September before local Community Board 3, a panel that specifically singled out Avenue A as a bad example of area bar sprawl.

In order to garner community approval for his own “limited bar,” Mr. Birdsong had to promise in writing that his proposed literary hangout would not someday morph into a troublesome, boozy nightspot.

Specifically, he was required to submit a “signed notarized stipulation” that Rapture would “operate as a bookstore with the service of alcoholic beverages incidental to its operation as a bookstore” and “with the predominant space being used for bookshelves,” according to the minutes of that meeting.

Even as originally proposed, however, the business is predominantly more café than bookstore.

According to Mr. Birdsong’s business plan, less than half of the venue’s 2,200-square-foot space (about 650) would be devoted to bookshelves and magazine racks.

A diagram of the space submitted to the community board last fall showed this area lined by two lengthy bookcases, with five smaller kiosks in between.

Meanwhile, the café area—featuring a bar longer than either bookcase, as well as several tables, a sofa, bench seating and a small stage—occupied about 1,000 square feet. Restrooms, a downstairs office and storage area, plus a 400-square-foot courtyard in back, rounded out the total space.

Moreover, the bookstore component could be reduced even further, as the kiosks were “specially designed to literally roll away from the main floor and transform the space into one possessing the capacity to house audience-friendly seating for special events,” according to the business plan.

When the store finally opened for business last month, the bookstore portion looked even less substantial than it did on paper, with books confined to one row of shelves, not two, and only three kiosks instead of five.

Yet even in this diminished capacity, Mr. Birdsong argued, Rapture’s inventory significantly increases the neighborhood’s collective literary cachet.

“There’s no place to buy new books in that part of town—actually, anywhere between Third Avenue and the river,” he said. “Or between 14th Street and Houston, really.”

Mr. Birdsong further played up his place’s creative cred with promises of future author signings, poetry readings, art exhibits and burlesque performances.

“Presenting another bar where people can get drunk for cheap is not what we’re really about,” he said. “We really want to look at this as more of a cultural destination.”

Think of it also as a flashy yet thinly veiled open house. As careful readers of the pop-up store’s handy shopping guide might note: “EVEN THIS SPECTACULAR RETAIL SPACE IS AVAILABLE!”

Indeed, for two consecutive holiday shopping seasons now, Wired magazine’s temporary occupancy at 160 Wooster Street has served two purposes for the landlord, TriBeach Holdings: first, as an honest-to-goodness rent-paying tenant (albeit just in the short term); and second, as a splashy demonstration of what that corner store could become—if only someone would lease it for more than just a few weeks.

“It’s a gorgeous space,” said retail broker Nathan Stange, describing the 2,932-square-foot unit, with its 16-foot-tall ceiling and “amazing frontage” spanning 106 feet of window-lined sidewalk at the corner of Wooster and Houston streets.

Exactly how attractive remains in question, however, as no permanent tenant has yet signed on to assume the space when Wired’s lease runs out at the end of December.

Its looming emptiness is all the more glaring considering that the building’s other retail space, located next-door, was leased to the Aroma espresso bar more than a year ago.

“It’s not like we haven’t gotten offers,” said Mr. Stange, of Susan Penzner Real Estate, which is now marketing the soon-to-be-vacant (again) unit. “It’s more like, ‘Do you want another food place next-door? Do you want to divide the space? Do you want to lease the space for three-quarters of what it’s worth?’ No!”

The recent participation of Ms. Penzner’s people and the landlord’s newly reduced asking price of $155 per square foot annually—which Mr. Stange called “basically the bottom line” and which other brokers described as rather low for Soho—suggest that ownership is desperate to not have to host the Wired Store for yet a third time in 2007.

Not that the broker, Mr. Stange, would describe it that way: “They’re content to wait for the right tenant,” he said.

Clearly, however, the landlord’s earlier reliance on in-house marketers and the visibility of temporary tenants to sell the space just wasn’t working. (The number for TriBeach Holding’s prior leasing contact has since been disconnected.) That strategy has merely resulted in a series of short-term flings—of the contractual variety, that is.

When the Wired Store first occupied the newly constructed eight-story condo building’s northwest corner space in November 2005, the walls of the shop were painted hot pink.

Six weeks later, the pop-up shop packed up its flickering displays and moved out. Yet for nearly a year, the space remained in a constant rosy state.

“The landlord liked it pink,” explained Mr. Stange. “They thought it really showcased the space.”

The vibrant-yet-empty shell did attract some interest, albeit more of the noncommittal type.

This past spring, for instance, the Italian Trade Commission rented the place for an exhibit titled Opere di Luce, a weeklong retrospective on 50 years of Italian-style lighting.

Once all the lamps were removed, though, the place collected cobwebs for a whole summer.

In the fall, Sony ponied up for a mere one-day event on Nov. 3, whitewashing the pink walls for the company’s unveiling of its latest PlayStation 3.

Then came Wired Store Version 2.0, which opened with much fanfare—and repainted hot pink walls—six days later.

Unless the brokerage can summon some sort of holiday miracle over the next two weeks, the space will begin the new year pink and bare yet again.

Mr. Stange suggested a number of factors might have contributed to the site’s long-term leasing struggle, starting with Con Edison’s noisy, seemingly never-ending construction in the area. A lack of venting, meanwhile, pretty much rules out restaurants, he said.

And its corner location—though situated smack in the middle of shopping mecca Soho—isn’t quite as heavy on foot traffic as a similar storefront on, say, Prince or Spring streets.

“Major retailers have been afraid of Houston, because you only get traffic on one side of the block because it’s so wide,” he said.

Despite these disadvantages, Mr. Stange is confident that a more permanent retailer will sign on eventually, eliminating the need for future temps. (His boss, Ms. Penzner, mentioned an unnamed furniture store and clothier as possible contenders.)

Not that the pop-up shops haven’t served some purpose: “It has brought attention to the space, especially this time,” he said of the Wired Store. However, he added, “the main benefit to the landlord is making a couple bucks on it.”

Think of it also as a flashy yet thinly veiled open house. As careful readers of the pop-up store’s handy shopping guide might note: “EVEN THIS SPECTACULAR RETAIL SPACE IS AVAILABLE!”

Indeed, for two consecutive holiday shopping seasons now, Wired magazine’s temporary occupancy at 160 Wooster Street has served two purposes for the landlord, TriBeach Holdings: first, as an honest-to-goodness rent-paying tenant (albeit just in the short term); and second, as a splashy demonstration of what that corner store could become—if only someone would lease it for more than just a few weeks.

“It’s a gorgeous space,” said retail broker Nathan Stange, describing the 2,932-square-foot unit, with its 16-foot-tall ceiling and “amazing frontage” spanning 106 feet of window-lined sidewalk at the corner of Wooster and Houston streets.

Exactly how attractive remains in question, however, as no permanent tenant has yet signed on to assume the space when Wired’s lease runs out at the end of December.

Its looming emptiness is all the more glaring considering that the building’s other retail space, located next-door, was leased to the Aroma espresso bar more than a year ago.

“It’s not like we haven’t gotten offers,” said Mr. Stange, of Susan Penzner Real Estate, which is now marketing the soon-to-be-vacant (again) unit. “It’s more like, ‘Do you want another food place next-door? Do you want to divide the space? Do you want to lease the space for three-quarters of what it’s worth?’ No!”

The recent participation of Ms. Penzner’s people and the landlord’s newly reduced asking price of $155 per square foot annually—which Mr. Stange called “basically the bottom line” and which other brokers described as rather low for Soho—suggest that ownership is desperate to not have to host the Wired Store for yet a third time in 2007.

Not that the broker, Mr. Stange, would describe it that way: “They’re content to wait for the right tenant,” he said.

Clearly, however, the landlord’s earlier reliance on in-house marketers and the visibility of temporary tenants to sell the space just wasn’t working. (The number for TriBeach Holding’s prior leasing contact has since been disconnected.) That strategy has merely resulted in a series of short-term flings—of the contractual variety, that is.

When the Wired Store first occupied the newly constructed eight-story condo building’s northwest corner space in November 2005, the walls of the shop were painted hot pink.

Six weeks later, the pop-up shop packed up its flickering displays and moved out. Yet for nearly a year, the space remained in a constant rosy state.

“The landlord liked it pink,” explained Mr. Stange. “They thought it really showcased the space.”

The vibrant-yet-empty shell did attract some interest, albeit more of the noncommittal type.

This past spring, for instance, the Italian Trade Commission rented the place for an exhibit titled Opere di Luce, a weeklong retrospective on 50 years of Italian-style lighting.

Once all the lamps were removed, though, the place collected cobwebs for a whole summer.

In the fall, Sony ponied up for a mere one-day event on Nov. 3, whitewashing the pink walls for the company’s unveiling of its latest PlayStation 3.

Then came Wired Store Version 2.0, which opened with much fanfare—and repainted hot pink walls—six days later.

Unless the brokerage can summon some sort of holiday miracle over the next two weeks, the space will begin the new year pink and bare yet again.

Mr. Stange suggested a number of factors might have contributed to the site’s long-term leasing struggle, starting with Con Edison’s noisy, seemingly never-ending construction in the area. A lack of venting, meanwhile, pretty much rules out restaurants, he said.

And its corner location—though situated smack in the middle of shopping mecca Soho—isn’t quite as heavy on foot traffic as a similar storefront on, say, Prince or Spring streets.

“Major retailers have been afraid of Houston, because you only get traffic on one side of the block because it’s so wide,” he said.

Despite these disadvantages, Mr. Stange is confident that a more permanent retailer will sign on eventually, eliminating the need for future temps. (His boss, Ms. Penzner, mentioned an unnamed furniture store and clothier as possible contenders.)

Not that the pop-up shops haven’t served some purpose: “It has brought attention to the space, especially this time,” he said of the Wired Store. However, he added, “the main benefit to the landlord is making a couple bucks on it.”