Westfield Corporation, which wants to be released from its Fulton Center lease with the MTA, is probably right that crime and insecurity are driving out some retail tenants.
But it’s also true that the donut-domed “shopping” atrium at the subway station at Broadway and Fulton Street has been a failure since it opened in 2014, long before the coronavirus pandemic caused a rise in crime.
Parent company Unibail Rodamco Westfield said it plans to demolish most or all of its U.S. shopping centers in 2022. The Fulton debacle would fit perfectly into that strategy.
Retail brokers, who did not wish to be named, accused Westfield of failing to secure a store lease in Fulton from the beginning. The same goes for the World Trade Center, where the company owns retail space in the Oculus and office towers. Many storefronts remain vacant.
They say Westfield’s policy of not hiring local retail intermediaries has alienated the talent needed to attract even mid-market stores to Fulton.
Half of the floor, known as Level 2 (one of four floors connected by an intricate maze of stairs, escalators, and elevators), has been vacant since it opened.
Shake Shack is the building’s only major retail tenant. The rest are fast-food restaurants like Krispy Kreme, Auntie Anne’s, and, until recently, Haagen-Dazs, which resemble the “food court” of a suburban shopping mall.
Despite the retail crisis, Westfield has a clear The dollar bin above the store — flexible workspace provider Industrious has “partnered” with Westfield in 2022. Its 50,000 square foot area is larger than all of its stores combined.
When we took the elevator to the mysterious fourth floor, a diligent employee twice tried to kick us out of the public landing outside the door. Maybe they have something to hide.
Casa Cipriani is a very popular private and boutique hotel (among its members), seemingly floating above the landmark Battery Maritime Building overlooking downtown New York Harbor.
But behind the magic is money. The Pleasure Palace’s owners, Cipriani, Midtown Equities and Centaur Properties, just secured a $103 million refinancing for the property, which opened in 2021. Walker & Dunlop arranged CMBS loans from Citigroup, JPMorgan and Argentic.
Long-term fixed rate loans are an alternative to short-term variable rate bridge loans.
Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz, Adam Schwartz and Sean Bastian led the W&D New York Capital Markets team.
