Designer Diane von Furstenberg stopped by Brookfield Place on Tuesday dressed all in black and white and being trailed by a camera crew.
The redhead was there to make some last-minute changes at her new store, sources said, which is scheduled to open on March 26th, that included moving a pink couch.
The white-walled store is punctuated with pink furniture and a leopard skin rug, and has hundreds of rectangular crystals swaying and sparkling in the center from a hanging array. Bags, shoes and dresses are already on display along with the staffers excited about both the store and Brookfield Place’s Grand Opening on Thursday morning.
The designer has a reality show, “House of DVF,” on E! but it is unclear what was being filmed at Brookfield Place and later when von Furstenberg walked to the World Trade Center Memorial with an employee who sources said lost a relative in the 9/11 attacks.
The two sat talking on one of the granite benches before strolling together to the north pool where von Furstenberg took photos.
“It’s beautiful,” von Furstenberg said later of the Memorial as she got into her green Bentley back at Brookfield Place and was whisked away.
I got a sneak peek at the stores and restaurants at Brookfield Place ahead of its grand opening on Thursday.
Workmen were mortaring marble, washing windows, and sweeping floors in a frenzy of late-minute preparations. Contemporary apparel shops including Bonobos, Michael Kors, Vince and Calypso St. Barth are almost ready to open their doors with merchandise laid out and lights blazing.
The changes at the central Winter Garden have made the entire area even brighter and lighter, as a wall overlooking the World Trade Center has been removed.
Here the luxe fashion brands that include Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry and Hermes will take longer to build out.
And they will open later this fall along with some white tablecloth restaurants, said Brookfield’s Ed Hogan.
While the fast dining choices at Hudson Eats are already packing them in, right under this area, the counters and shelves in the 23,000 square-foot ground floor Le District food market, operated by Peter Poulakakos, were still being stocked. Chefs were getting lessons, and everywhere people were scurrying and preparing for its opening, also on Thursday.
Trinity Real Estate is in the midst of ground leasing four of its valuable Hudson Square office buildings.
Proposals for a 99-year lease on the four properties owned were due last week and could go to $1.25 billion, Real Estate Alert reported.
Our sources say the total could climb even higher. Income will bump when leases roll as the tech-beloved former printing meccas with large floors and big windows are now leased at under market rents. Rents once in the mid-$30s and more recently in the mid-$50s have skyrocketed to the mid-$70s in line with other Midtown South properties and as the once desolate area is in-filled with restaurants and retail.
The buildings are 98 percent occupied. The largest is the squat, full-block One Hudson Square, which is bounded by Canal, Varick and Watts streets and a Holland Tunnel entrance. Its 1.2 million square feet is fully leased.
The other office buildings include the 12-story 200 Hudson St. with 387,000 square feet; the 12-story, 205 Hudson St. with 401,000 square feet and the oldest, a boutique, seven-story 12-16 Vestry St. with 61,000 square feet that was built in 1892. The others were developed in the late 1920s.
The offering is being shepparded by Michael Laginestra, David Maurer-Hollaender, Michael Geoghegan and Joan Meixner of CBRE.
Back in 2007, Laginestra represented Viacom in the media company’s 400,000 square-foot lease at Trinity’s 345 Hudson St.
The net-leasing of the properties, which could include a large, upfront payment, would let the Church have an income stream while its real estate arm could devote time and attention to other buildings as well as the residential development allowed by the new Hudson Square zoning.
Trinity Real Estate and CBRE did not return requests for comment on the upcoming long-term lease.
Back in 1696, the Church of England obtained approvals for its first church from Governor Benjamin Fletcher. To help it raise funds, its charter in 1697 granted it all the wrecks and whales that came ashore. Trinity’s holdings were greatly expanded by a 215-acre land grant from Queen Anne in 1705.
Over the years, most of that acreage was sold off leaving the current church with roughly 14 acres and 5.5 million-square-feet of buildings valued at $3 billion according to a 2013 lawsuit over its leadership.