Jones Lang LaSalle
NYC 01 26 06
HOME DEPOT MEETS HUDSON SQUARE
Peter Slatin
Hot on the heels of news of a likely deal at 7 World Trade Center, another major deal is in the works in Lower Manhattan. But instead of an office lease in a spanking new tower across from Ground Zero, this deal involves a key retailer taking space just north of Tribeca. It would represent a huge corporate embrace of the burgeoning downtown residential market by a leading national retailer: Home Depot is close to signing a lease for a roughly 107,000-square-foot, three-level store at 345 Hudson Street, a block south of Houston Street and a short walk from the West Side Highway, with its great access to links to New Jersey and Brooklyn.
The building is owned by the real estate arm of New York's legendary Trinity Church, which since the late 1990s has been reshaping the 19th century industrial district as Hudson Square, a mixed-use office, creative and residential area. Trinity owns some 6 million square feet in 18 buildings in Hudson Square. Last fall, in an effort to rev up its efforts to rev up the neighborhood's cachet, Trinity hired Carl Weisbrod, a founder of the Alliance for Downtown New York and a well-regarded urban strategist, to head up Trinity Real Estate. Weisbrod's emphasis has been to lay the groundwork for the district's growth as a creative and welcoming residential and commercial neighbrohood and a gateway to other neighborhoods to the north, south and east.
Weisbrod could not be reached, and a broker at Cushman & Wakefield, which represents Home Depot in New York, declined to comment on the prospective deal. But sources familiar with the building in question say its large loading docks and location just west of SoHO, south of Greenwich Village and north of Tribeca and the fast-growing Financial District's residential market are two key factors in the home furnishing giant's decision-making process.
Trinity established the Hudson Square district in 1983; it is bounded by Sixth Avenue and the Hudson River on the east and west, and Morton and Canal streets to the north and south.
To date, retail in the area has consisted of a quirky but generally unexciting mix of furniture showrooms, bars and restaurants and small stores, all catering to the publishing, architecture and advertising businesses that make up most of the office tenancy; the chains have been absent. If Home Depot goes through with this deal, that will certainly change. The company has looked at several other downtown locations to add to its two existing sites in Manhattan, at 731 Lexington Avenue, and on West 23rd Street.
It's not the first time Home Depot has considered a pioneering Manhattan location. In 1996, the company began trying working with a Long Island developer, David Blumenfeld, to build out the abandoned Washburn Wire Works along the FDR Drive at 116th Street, on the eastern border of Harlem. That deal foundered until recentlyl, when Blumenfeld announced that Home Depot and COstco have signed on to move ahead with the site.
NYC 01 26 06
HOME DEPOT MEETS HUDSON SQUARE
Peter Slatin
Hot on the heels of news of a likely deal at 7 World Trade Center, another major deal is in the works in Lower Manhattan. But instead of an office lease in a spanking new tower across from Ground Zero, this deal involves a key retailer taking space just north of Tribeca. It would represent a huge corporate embrace of the burgeoning downtown residential market by a leading national retailer: Home Depot is close to signing a lease for a roughly 107,000-square-foot, three-level store at 345 Hudson Street, a block south of Houston Street and a short walk from the West Side Highway, with its great access to links to New Jersey and Brooklyn.
The building is owned by the real estate arm of New York's legendary Trinity Church, which since the late 1990s has been reshaping the 19th century industrial district as Hudson Square, a mixed-use office, creative and residential area. Trinity owns some 6 million square feet in 18 buildings in Hudson Square. Last fall, in an effort to rev up its efforts to rev up the neighborhood's cachet, Trinity hired Carl Weisbrod, a founder of the Alliance for Downtown New York and a well-regarded urban strategist, to head up Trinity Real Estate. Weisbrod's emphasis has been to lay the groundwork for the district's growth as a creative and welcoming residential and commercial neighbrohood and a gateway to other neighborhoods to the north, south and east.
Weisbrod could not be reached, and a broker at Cushman & Wakefield, which represents Home Depot in New York, declined to comment on the prospective deal. But sources familiar with the building in question say its large loading docks and location just west of SoHO, south of Greenwich Village and north of Tribeca and the fast-growing Financial District's residential market are two key factors in the home furnishing giant's decision-making process.
Trinity established the Hudson Square district in 1983; it is bounded by Sixth Avenue and the Hudson River on the east and west, and Morton and Canal streets to the north and south.
To date, retail in the area has consisted of a quirky but generally unexciting mix of furniture showrooms, bars and restaurants and small stores, all catering to the publishing, architecture and advertising businesses that make up most of the office tenancy; the chains have been absent. If Home Depot goes through with this deal, that will certainly change. The company has looked at several other downtown locations to add to its two existing sites in Manhattan, at 731 Lexington Avenue, and on West 23rd Street.
It's not the first time Home Depot has considered a pioneering Manhattan location. In 1996, the company began trying working with a Long Island developer, David Blumenfeld, to build out the abandoned Washburn Wire Works along the FDR Drive at 116th Street, on the eastern border of Harlem. That deal foundered until recentlyl, when Blumenfeld announced that Home Depot and COstco have signed on to move ahead with the site.
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 10:52 AM
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