The first is the retail space at the World Trade Center, which Futterman said is in talks with "all the household names," something to be expected given the psuedo-mall's size (500,000 square feet), prominence and, of course, everyone's desire to be downtown.

There is also the little-known fact that, despite the aforementioned Fifth Avenue's strength, the old World Trade Center mall was actually the most high-traffic, profitable place in the city, before it was destroyed on 9/11, something that no doubt makes the new venture all the more appealing.

Yet here is what Futterman said that really caught The Observer's pink eye: "You'll probably have something hipper than any shopping mall, maybe a mix of local and international operators." That sounds exciting. Sort of a Soho II, maybe?

Meanwhile, Futterman confirms the aquarium talks for 11 Times Square, about the only thing better for the area than a throwback peep show. But it also sounds like the building could be destined for more of the same pedestrian pablum. 

We have 55,000 square feet on the ground, basement and second floor, but the retail could go up to the sixth floor. Most of the interest is from fast-fashion retailers like Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Old Navy. Consumer electronics are also interested, and restaurants. 

Given that Disney has just opened its Times Square dreamland, this sounds just about right.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

If square footage isn’t your vernacular, that’s about the size of your apartment. If you live in a studio. With the bathtub in the kitchen.

But talk about visibility! “The space features 20 feet of frontage and very high ceilings, which is rare for a space this size,” according to the Jan. 15 announcement.

For a guy who famously secured some 22,500 square feet at the GM Building for Apple founder Steve Jobs to hawk his tiny 3.5-inch-tall iPods, this was pretty small potatoes. In fact, it was barely a quarter of the available retail space at that location: “1,500 square feet of retail space still available,” the release noted.

The Jan. 21 edition of Real Estate Weekly, the trade paper that prints just about every announcement of new dealmaking in New York City, had only two reports of new retail leases in Manhattan, both of the mini-mart variety: a 2,500-square-foot kiddie gym at 1135 Second Avenue, and a 1,075-square-foot shoe store at 364 Sixth Avenue. The following weeks have offered little news as well: Massey Knakal sold three retail condos at 1474 Third Avenue, totaling just 1,015 square feet; Newmark Knight Frank secured a comparatively sprawling 1,965-square-foot location at 400 Broadway for a new Miro Cafe.

Aggrandizing such tiny deals is rather uncustomary for retail brokers, whose careers are often measured in square feet. But these days, it seems, everyone is doing more with less.

“Although we may not advertise a lot of these smaller deals, that’s where we’re seeing a lot of activity,” Mr. Futterman said.

Even retailers traditionally inclined to staking large footprints are now looking to squeeze into something more snug. “Companies do downsize in terms of their store size,” Mr. Futterman noted. “A national chain usually in 10,000 to 12,000 square feet now might be able to figure out how to operate in 5,500 square feet, and be more efficient and pay less rent.”

Meanwhile, a slew of massive storefronts sit empty, with even more vacant retail space coming available all the time: 10,000 square feet at 1940 Park Avenue; 39,000 square feet at BellTel Lofts; and up to 1 million square feet in the pipeline at the Bronx Terminal Market’s new Gateway Center.

“There are plenty of big-box opportunities in the marketplace, but there are no big-box users in the marketplace,” said Brad Mendelson, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield.

“When Circuit City goes out,” added Mr. Mendelson, referring to the mammoth electronics store at 52 East 14th Street, which is now in the midst of a massive liquidation sale, “who’s going there?”

Rumors abound, of course. Last week, The Villager published an article rife with speculation. Could it be Best Buy? Wal-Mart? Target?

The way things are going, the landlord, the Related Companies, may have to choose between letting the sprawling space sit empty—indefinitely, while the market recovers—or parceling it out to smaller stores.

“There’s very little warehousing of space,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chair of retail leasing and sales for Prudential Douglas Elliman. “Before, where the landlords wanted to lease five stores together, now they’re all listening to individual deals. If [they] have 5,000 square feet, [they] will divide. Last year, they wouldn’t divide.”

LANDLORDS ARE LOWERING their standards in all sorts of ways to adjust with the declining market: renegotiating rents, agreeing to longer lease terms—some will even accept fast-food uses, a sector that has long turned many stubborn building owners’ stomachs.

Advantage: little guy.

“The bigger nationals, at the moment, need to be very cautious and are working diligently on how to possibly lower operating costs,” said Susan Kurland, an executive vice president at CB Richard Ellis, who has earned accolades from her peers for bringing big-name retailers into big Manhattan spaces: securing 36,000 square foot for H&M at 640 Fifth Avenue, for instance, and 45,200 square feet for American Girl at 609 Fifth Avenue.

“The reverse side is, if you’re a smaller company that has done well, like a Madison Avenue coterie-type tenant I’m working with, it’s the perfect time to expand,” Mr. Kurland said.

Or, conversely, if you’re a big company in search of small spaces: “Cell phone companies—Verizon, AT&T—they’re expanding like crazy,” she noted.

“The past few months, your bigger flagship deals were either killed or put on hold,” said Jeffrey Roseman, an executive vice president and founding partner of Newmark Knight Frank Retail. “There are definitely some companies that are going to wait until they feel like the market is at least on the way back up. But you do have a lot of companies that are looking to take advantage: Microsoft is looking to open stores, the drug stores are still looking, and a lot of your bigger-name fashion guys are still looking. There are a lot of retailers that have really capitalized on markets like this in the past.”

Mr. Mendelson of Cushman & Wakefield, for one, is already seeing some renewed interest. “Over the past two weeks, tenants have realized that there is this correction in the marketplace, and they’re starting to become active again,” he said. “They don’t want to miss the opportunity.”

Case in point: the old Times Square Theater at 217 West 42nd Street. Mr. Mendelson is again marketing the 30,390-square-foot space where Mark Ecko Enterprises had been planning to build its three-story flagship, until abruptly pulling out of the deal earlier this year.

Prospective tenants have been touring the empty space in recent weeks. “Whether activity actually means we’ll get a deal done or not, this seems to be an uptick,” Mr. Mendelson said.

But that uptick requires a lot of patience on the part of brokers, a group of professionals not exactly known for their yogalike bearing.

“They’re pulling out my hair, my eyelashes!” Ms. Consolo of Douglas Elliman said, referring to both tenants and landlords. “The deals that you thought were done yesterday get renegotiated today. The landlords that you thought you had under control get out of control. A lot depends on what happened the day before in the stock market, what the president said on TV in the last 14 seconds, because he’s on TV more than a soap opera star now. I don’t know whether he wants to have his own TV show or he wants to be running the show.”

She added, “Nothing is done, done, done until it’s overly done.”

cshott@observer.com

drubinstein@observer.com

Hanging in the empty window behind them is, of course, a sign sporting Papa Futterman’s own blue “RKF” logo, inspired by his “real-estate hero,” Edward S. Gordon, and his longtime client, the GAP.

This week, The Observer checks in on 10 modern-day “real-estate heroes” (or villains, depending on your perspective) and what they’re up to.

Take Mr. Futterman, whose GAP-inspired signs have come to dominate Manhattan storefronts over the past 10 years (and are now also cropping up across Los Angeles and Las Vegas) from Time Warner Center to Grand Central Station to the Plaza Hotel—even the abandoned and notoriously rat-infested KFC-Taco Bell space in Greenwich Village.

Hey, they can’t all be Victoria’s Secret.

As Mr. Futterman explained, “At the end of the day, if economics are driving a situation, you may not end up with Anthropologie, J. Crew and Steve Madden shoes. You may end up with AT&T Wireless and Starbucks.”

Paula Del Nunzio treats every multimillion-dollar mansion “as if it were a consumer-packaged good product.” Like Tide or Crest.

That makes perfect sense. The former Ogilvy & Mather ad exec once handled the Proctor & Gamble account.

“Each one has a name,” Ms. Del Nunzio, now senior vice president and managing director at Brown Harris Stevens, said of the many high-end properties she markets.

Consider the Duke-Semans Mansion on Fifth Avenue, which sold for $40 million. Or better yet, the Harkness Mansion, which went for $53 million—the highest price ever paid for a house in Manhattan.

Now, Ms. Del Nunzio is shooting for an even bigger record: $59 million. But it will require a little rebranding. The East 67th Street address is best known as Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione’s former digs.

She prefers to call it the Milbank Mansion, after a much earlier inhabitant. “Because,” she said, “everyone came in sort of snickering and poking fun.” (So much for porno chic.)

Lockhart Steele is putting a lot of stock in his “outsider perspective” on New York real estate. Literally.

Armed with a reported $1.5 million in new financing, the 33-year-old founder and president of the popular Curbed network of blogs—which aim to “democratize” the dialogue on neighborhood development, local restaurants and retail—is beefing up his staff and expanding into new markets. (Next up: Curbed Chicago.)

“Insiders initially were probably baffled,” he said of the gossip-heavy Web sites, which thrive on readers’ tips. “I’d say now we’re somewhere in the range of mild acceptance.”

Still, the sites’ skeptical tone sometimes stirs hostile reactions.

Just last year, an angry Tungsten Properties employee virtually stalked Mr. Steele over a Curbed item describing a section of Howard Street as “a blight to SoHo.”

“We occasionally get a crazy letter from someone who’s like, ‘I’m gonna sue you. I can’t believe you wrote that about my building,’” said Mr. Steele, who downplayed the standoff as an isolated incident. “But it’s almost always a bunch of hot air.”

André Balazs fancies himself as “a classic, old-fashioned hotelier.”

He takes pride in the fact that the Mercer, his first effort at upscale lodging, which opened in SoHo nearly two decades ago, was “the smallest hotel that had been built in New York since 1929.”

These days, though, Mr. Balazs seems to be supersizing, what with his hotly anticipated, High Line-straddling Standard New York slated to open in 2008.

“It’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done before,” said Mr. Balazs, who is “moving back into hotels with a vengeance,” after years of post-Sept. 11 condo projects, including One Kenmare Square, 40 Mercer and William Beaver House.

Mr. Balazs confirmed for The Observer that he is also involved in another High Line-area hotel project in the vicinity of 14th Street and Tenth Avenue. “It’s a smaller boutique,” he said, “on the scale of the Mercer.” Construction could begin as soon as next summer.

As for his also-rumored involvement in plans by the new management for the embattled Chelsea Hotel, the handsome hotelier would only say, “The owners there are still pointing fingers at each other and sorting things out. It’s way too early for us to get involved.”

Sheldon Solow is one of the richest real estate moguls in the city (estimated net worth: about $2 billion, according to Forbes)—and is reputedly the most litigious of them all.

According to a recent New York Times tally, Mr. Solow has initiated more than 200 lawsuits, making his tenacious courtroom reputation every bit as imposing as the 50-story office tower at 9 West 57th Street that he’s known for.

Maybe more so.

Just listen to opposing lawyers sound off on their run-ins with the old man: “He was trying to obtain legal fees for $800,000 for a trial that had lasted less than two days and had two witnesses!” And: “He’s sued this case over nine years—eight different courts—and he’s never won anything!”

Mr. Solow is at present planning a reported $4 billion development consisting of seven luxury towers on the site of Con Edison’s old Waterside power plants along First Avenue—the scope and scale of which makes some city officials nervous.

Think they’ll sue?

Lee Bollinger is a noted legal scholar and reputed expert on the First Amendment.

Where the current Columbia University president stands on the Fourth Amendment, though, is what has many Harlem residents worried.

Columbia is planning a massive 17-acre expansion of its Harlem campus, which the New York Planning Commission approved last week. The plan reportedly contained provisions that could allow the government to employ eminent domain in snatching up land for the school’s expansion—this, despite earlier promises that the university would, in most cases, look to buy properties from willing sellers.

Mr. Bollinger has long trumpeted the supposed benefits of the vast expansion. In August, he appeared at a public hearing to give a short speech about all the good-paying jobs it would create in the neighborhood. Not that you could really hear it over all the loud booing and shouts of “Liar!” from the audi
ence. (A video of the raucous exchange can be viewed via YouTube.)

Despite all the taunting, Mr. Bollinger has remained steadfast in his respect for even his cranky critics’ right to free speech. As he told the loud crowd back in August, “It will be a pity if this were not to be debated in a serious way.”

Everybody seemed to want a piece of Giuseppe Cipriani this year: landlords, the tabloids, the Manhattan district attorney. But the sharp-dressed restaurateur and financier barely flinched.

Despite agreeing to plead guilty to tax violations and fork over a $10 million fine, Mr. Cipriani still kept his liquor license, his Rolls Royce, his private jet, his yacht—and, according to the Daily News, was even thinking about building a new boat.

Think all the bad press might have hindered his sprawling banquet-hall empire’s ability to land prestigious bookings? Hell no. It’s holiday party season.

This week, Mr. Cipriani welcomes scores of deep-pocketed lawyers from the big firm Fried Frank to gather under his chandelier-adorned 65-foot ceiling on 42nd Street.

Michael Shvo is no doubt a shameless self-promoter, disliked by many of his peers. Consider his high-end condo-marketing company’s slogan: Let’s SHVO.

“‘Let’s SHVO’? Now that’s an ego,” his former colleague, Dolly Lenz, recently told The Observer.

But the man can sell. And perhaps no one is faster to boast about it than the limo-riding, onetime Douglas Elliman top-grossing broker himself.

“[It] defies everything that’s being declared about the state of the market right now,” Mr. Shvo, 36, gleefully announced after unloading nearly half of the condos at the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences in a single day last month, with prices starting at $2,000 per square foot.

Shvo much for sour grapes.

“I am so pro-Brooklyn, you can hear it in my voice,” said Joanne Minieri, the newly promoted president of Forest City Ratner Companies.

Born in Bensonhurst, the 47-year-old former accountant is now one of the highest-profile women in the vastly male-dominated field of real estate development.

Her rise followed the departure of Jim Stuckey, who once served as the face of Forest City’s controversial development at Atlantic Yards—a plan she vehemently supports for the new jobs, the new affordable housing and, yes, the N.B.A.’s New Jersey Nets coming to town.

“For little ol’ me, growing up in Canarsie, to be involved in bringing professional sports back to Brooklyn, I mean, even when I talk with my family and friends, we still can’t believe it.”

To critics, her boss, developer Bruce Ratner, seemed long obsessed with building the tallest tower in Brooklyn. How does installing a female president impact the penis-envy question?

Not an issue, Ms. Minieri said, laughing. “It was quickly remedied by taking the height down off the building.”

Steven Roth is one hard-headed developer. Just ask the rival CEO whom, according to a source, the bald Vornado Realty Trust chairman literally head-butted during a dispute at a recent industry conference.

You can imagine just how standoffish the tough-talking, highly competitive office-space mogul (ranked No. 39 on Golf Digest’s 2006 list of the nation’s top CEO golfers) seemed when surrounded by four rivals, all jockeying for sole development rights of the West Side rail yards.

At a press conference, The Observer cautiously approached the typically secretive CEO, who rarely grants interviews, and gingerly asked a few questions, including: When must Merrill Lynch decide whether to relocate to the Vornado-owned Hotel Pennsylvania?

To which Mr. Roth, who somewhat resembles a bulldog, snapped, “How should I know?”

His own entourage seemed startled. One woman even scolded him: “Steven! He’s a nice young man!”

The allegedly habit-forming icy-treat chain, AKA "crackberry," has signed a lease for a new 600-square-foot shop on Broadway near Columbia University, according to Tuesday's announcement from brokerage Robert K. Futterman & Associates.

The new Morningside Heights digs will be the fifth New York City location for the West Coast dessert dealer, which has embarked on an aggressive East Coast expansion plan.

Not that Tasti D-Lite is shivering.

As a spokesperson for "NEW YORK'S #1 FROZEN DESSERT" told The Observer back in November (and recently reiterated for the Sun): "We don't consider it any competition at all... It's frozen yogurt, and our product is a unique frozen dessert which contains no yogurt at all."

Full release after the jump.

- Chris Shott

RKF SECURES NEW LOCATION FOR PINKBERRY AT 2875 BROADWAY

Firm brings frozen yogurt newcomer to Upper West Side

New York, March 6, 2007 - Robert K. Futterman & Associates, LLC (RKF), the nation's leading independent real estate firm specializing in retail leasing, investment sales, and consulting services has arranged a 600-square-foot lease for Pinkberry at 2875 Broadway.

RKF Senior Director Mark Kapnick and Associate Brandon Eisenman represented Pinkberry in this transaction. RKF is the exclusive retail leasing agent for Pinkberry in the New York Metropolitan area.

2875 Broadway is located between 111th and 112th Streets in the Columbia University neighborhood. The neighborhood is densely populated and is surrounded by fashion retailers, restaurants, cafes and bars catering to students and neighborhood residents. This will be the retailer's fifth New York City location. RKF recently secured two other Manhattan locations for Pinkberry at 2041 Broadway on the corner of West 70th Street and at 177 Bleeker Street on the corner of MacDougal Street.

"This is a prime location for Pinkberry. It is in an affluent neighborhood with high pedestrian traffic. We couldn't have found a more visible opportunity on the Upper West Side," said Kapnick.

About Robert K. Futterman & Associates:

The country's leading independent real estate firm specializing in retail leasing and investment sales, Robert K. Futterman & Associates, LLC (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 LLC is located at 521 Fifth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10175, telephone: 212.599.3700. www.rkf.com

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

###

Bridezilla-beloved designer Vera Wang has leased 2,500 square feet on Mercer Street to showcase her latest ready-to-wear and Lavender labels.

Retail brokerage Robert K. Futterman & Associates announced the deal late Tuesday.

The new boutique is scheduled to open this coming fall--which almost gives you enough time to secure adequate financing for that grey-pleated, organza, floor-length t-shirt with pewter sea-bead smocking that your wife has been eyeballing.

Full release after the jump.

- Chris Shott

RKF BRINGS FIRST-EVER VERA WANG READY-TO-WEAR FLAGSHIP BOUTIQUE TO 158 MERCER STREET

Firm secures 2,500 square feet of retail space for retailer in SoHo

New York, January 9, 2006 - Robert K. Futterman & Associates, LLC (RKF), the nation's leading independent real estate firm specializing in retail leasing, investment sales, and consulting services secured 2,500 square feet of retail space at 158 Mercer Street for Vera Wang's first ready-to-wear boutique in SoHo. This will be the flagship location and will feature the designer's ready-to-wear label as well as the contemporary Lavender label.

RKF Managing Director Joshua Strauss represented Vera Wang. Andrew Kahn of Cushman & Wakefield represented building ownership BMH Associates, LLC.

158 Mercer Street is located between Prince and Houston in Manhattan's SoHo district.

Neighboring tenants include Marc Jacobs, Marni, Mercer Hotel and Esprit.

"This is an ideal location for the Vera Wang brand and perfect for the launching of her first-ever ready-to-wear boutique," said Strauss. "The neighborhood is flourishing with the world's most famous fashion retailers, home furnishing stores and art galleries, consistent with the luxurious brand Ms. Wang has created."

The new flagship boutique is scheduled to open in the fall 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, LLC (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 LLC is located at 521 Fifth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10175, telephone: 212.599.3700. www.rkf.com

###

Sorry, Best Buy. Big-box domestics behemoth Bed, Bath & Beyond now has dibs on 33,500 square feet of the remaining retail space at Tribeca's forthcoming 101 Warren Street complex.

Brokerage Robert K. Futterman & Associates described the deal Thursday as a " testament" to the historic neighborhood's rebirth as, um, a shopping mall.

"Lower Manhattan and TriBeCa in particular are quickly becoming a seven-day retail market, popular with New Yorkers and tourists alike. Bed Bath & Beyond's decision to establish a downtown flagship at 101 Warren, further reinforces the area's retail resurgence," RFK Managing Director Ariel Schuster stated in a press release.

With Whole Foods Market and Barnes & Noble already taking up another 100,000 square feet of the Owings & Merrill-designed building (aka 270 Greenwich Street), there's only enough room left for, say, a Gap or two.

"RFK will be marketing the balance of the 4,294 square feet of retail space to upscale fashion retailers and to luxury home furnishing stores," according to the release.

What, no Starbucks?

- Chris Shott

As community opposition continues to keep Wal-Mart out of the Big Apple, local retail broker extraordinaire Robert K. Futterman has come up with a brilliant solution to the big-box debacle: Kick the naysayers out of the approval process.

"If they keep going in front of [the City Planning Commission] and community boards, they're gonna have a problem," Futterman said in an interview with The Real Deal, available via podcast. "The ideal situation would be a location, whether it be New York or any of the other boroughs, where they can go in and operate without having to go get, you know, any approvals outside of the zoning."

Futterman isn't the first visionary to advocate substantial red-tape reductions that might favor the world's largest retailer's ongoing expansion plans. Last month, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley vetoed a law that would have required Wal-Mart and other large retailers in that city to increase workers' pay and benefits. After years of wrangling with pro-labor, anti-"Always Low Prices" activists in the Windy City, the big-box behemoth responded by unveiling its first store there on Sept. 28 and announcing its intentions to "aggressively pursue other sites," as well.

"With some patience and perseverance," Futterman said he expects Wal-Mart to experience similar success in opening a New York store "somewhere in the next five years." Probably, he added, in one of the outer boroughs--although the company's prior plans for Queens and Staten Island didn't exactly pan out.

On a related note, Futterman predicted the future of retail in South Bronx was "absolutely phenomenal."

- Chris Shott

The two-floor, 17,000-square-foot retail space at 85 Fifth Avenue--known to savvy ladies everywhere as the Flatiron District's Anthropologie--has been sold to RFR Holding LLC for $24.8 million. (The group bought the Seagram Building in late 2000 for slightly more: $375m.)

The nice clothing retailer, thankfully, will stay put.

The store is a retail co-op. And according to Robert Futterman, whose company represented both RFR and seller Michael Salzhauer, retail co-ops are the exciting new trend in the exciting world of New York retail real estate.

- Max Abelson

In 2004, Mr. Joel dropped $3.9 million on the place. Then, last July, the piano man moved out when he bought a three-story townhouse on Perry Street from artist and heir Seward Johnson for $5.9 million.

To complete the transition from Tribeca to Greenwich Village, Mr. Joel first tried unloading the Tribeca condo last summer for $5 million, listing it with Donna Senko of Sotheby’s International Realty. No bites.

But after a price drop in December, down to $4.5 million, Mr. Joel found a buyer. The deal on the apartment, which has three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, closed in late February.

Other well-heeled tenants at the Hubert include British television producer Michael Davies, who grabbed one of the building’s two maisonette units for slightly over $8 million.

Janice Min Sells Porter House To Bachelor-Broker Futterman

In January, The Observer reported that Us Weekly editor Janice Min and her husband, Peter Sheehy, were moving into a $4 million Soho spread.

But the couple still had to get rid of their sleek apartment in the Porter House, a West 15th Street condominium in the meatpacking district.

Despite celebrity tenants like designer Carlos Miele and actress Molly Shannon over the past few years, it was reported that some unwelcome guests—of the rodent family—had also taken up residence in the chic building.

Regardless, Ms. Min found a very willing buyer, selling the apartment to retail real-estate maven Robert K. Futterman for $3.15 million, according to deed-transfer records.

The three-bedroom, three-bath condo features a Valcucine Chef’s kitchen, Viking appliances and Jatoba wood floors. The building includes a fitness room, private storage room, and full-time superintendent and doorman.

And for Mr. Futterman—who has been divorced for two years—the swank bachelor pad serves as the ideal place to crash when not trekking out to his Greenwich, Conn., house.

“What I liked about it is that it is in the fringe of the meatpacking district,” said Mr. Futterman. “Having an apartment in the city really works out for me. When I’m in the city, I tend to go out to dinner every night.” A few of his favorite nearby restaurants include Morimoto, Buddakan and Mas.

Mr. Futterman already owns a crash pad at the celebrity-filled (and Whole Foods–infested) Chelsea Mercantile building. But he needed a bit more space—especially when his two children, ages 13 and 11, come to visit.

Now, Mr. Futterman’s designer is giving his new 2,271-square-foot space a makeover, helping decide which contemporary artworks will adorn the walls. (An Ed Ruscha painting is a possibility.)

Surprisingly, Mr. Futterman’s interior-decorating proclivities have been on display of late.

Last week, Mr. Futterman graced the cover of The New York Times House and Home section, where he was featured in a piece about recent divorcées gussying up their new places without having a spouse to criticize their tastes. Mr. Futterman is shown playing pool in front of a large photograph of a Chinese man flanked by women in a tub. It “screams independence and bachelorhood,” he told The Times.

Now situated in the Porter House, Mr. Futterman is in prime position to fully embrace that independent bachelor lifestyle, within spitting distance of the velvet-rope-protected nightclubs in the meatpacking district.

Edward Hickey, of Meisel Real Estate, represented the seller. Ms. Min declined to comment.

Correction!

Two weeks ago, The Observer reported that artist and designer Barry Cord had listed his townhouse for $23.5 million. However, some historical information and architectural details obtained by The Observer, from a shared database used by real-estate brokers, were incorrect.

Built in the 1890’s, Mr. Cord’s East 65th Street townhouse was designed by J. Stewart Barney, a renowned architect and social figure of the era. An ancestor of former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, the townhouse only changed hands once—from the Kean family to the Cords.

The townhouse is actually three buildings joined together—two townhouses and a carriage house—and the entrance is set in an 80-foot façade. Also, there are almost 18,000 square feet of air rights available—which means that an individual or organization could utilize the property with commercial interests.

Charitable organizations are already quite familiar with the building. The Cords have held fund-raisers in the past for the Beth Israel hospital, Bard College and the Preservation League of New York State.

Now that Mr. Cord’s son is heading off to boarding school, the noted designer and his wife, Karen, plan to relocate into a smaller townhouse.

Roger Erickson, of Sotheby’s International Realty, is the listing broker. Currently traveling abroad, Mr. Erickson could not be reached for comment.