City Sports To Open Second Manhattan Store

This will be City Sports' second Manhattan store. The other location is at 390 Fifth Ave. at 36th Street. City Sports signed on for 11 years. Muss Development sources tell GlobeSt.com that average price of the area is $125 per sf, but they could not disclose asking or taking rent.

Muss Development LLC purchased 64 W. 48th St., a 17-story, 130,000-sf boutique office building in the Rockefeller Center area of Manhattan, in March for $54.5 million from Western Management, which paid $34 million for it two years ago. The owner will work with the retailer to upgrade the retail facade and make other improvements, including illuminated signage--which will be visible from the Avenue of the Americas--and a modern entrance canopy with additional signage. The store is expected to open in the fall.

Jason Muss, a principal at Muss Development, says in a prepared statement that the up and coming sporting goods retailer in Manhattan was looking for a location with a "significant amount of pedestrian traffic." Muss was represented by Jedd Nero of CB Richard Ellis Inc.

Approximately 25,000 sf of space will soon become available, including full floors. Mark Lauzon of Cushman & Wakefield is the exclusive leasing agent for the office space in the building.

Muss Development is currently in the process of repositioning the building as a first-class boutique office building. A building-wide multi-million dollar capital improvement program is underway, including a restored lobby with restored decorative plaster ceiling, new elevator cabs and common areas, new double pane windows, upgraded façade and new roof, new HVAC systems, electrical system upgrades, new bathrooms, upgraded security systems and keycard access. The property offers full floors ranging from 6,000 sf to 9,000 sf.

"We believe this building will appeal to a wide array of tenants who will appreciate the value, location and stable long-term ownership and management that will be provided by Muss Development," Muss says in the statement. "We will be able to offer leases at a fraction of the cost of nearby alternatives yet still provide the kind of space that a first class tenant demands and requires."