RXR Realty announced that celebrated restaurateur and award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson will lease over 5,000 s/f in the base of the Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea for new restaurant and culinary concept.
The Starrett-Lehigh Building is a landmarked Manhattan property, encompassing a full city block between 11th and 12th Avenues and 26th and 27th Streets, with 2.3 million square feet of office and retail space.
Samuelsson’s restaurant will be located on the corner of 26th and 11th Avenues, with outdoor entrances as well as an interior entrance for direct access from Starrett-Lehigh, making a new culinary experience available to office tenants and patrons.
The building’s ground floor also includes 13,000 s/f of a food hall/marketplace curated by Chicago-based restaurateur 16” on Center, which will bring together chefs and a variety of arts and entertainment to the neighborhood. This will exist in addition to two separate retail spaces totaling around 18,000 s/f, and almost 6,000 s/f of flexible event space.
“Emerging from such a challenging year for restaurants and the arts in the City, this is an important time to be committed to New York and be a part of hopefully more Black-owned businesses opening in popular areas like Midtown and Downtown,” said Samuelsson.
“For me personally, this is an exciting opportunity to also explore my “Swediopian” roots in a fresh way and to create an environment that celebrates the amazing creativity and diversity of our great City.”
“Starrett-Lehigh is a special destination with a loyal community and following. We’ve worked to bring even more fulsome, experiential programming to the building,” RXR’s Whitney Arcaro, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Retail Leasing said. “Marcus’s restaurant will enhance this by bringing another convivial and culturally rich component to the building.”
The operating partner will be long-time Marcus Samuelsson Group advisor Howard Greenstone and his company, Red Pebbles Hospitality, whose other restaurants include Adele’s (Nashville) and NYC-based Emmy Squared/Pizza Loves Emily.
Jason Greenstone of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant, and RXR was represented by Peter Fine and Janey Steinmetz of Newmark on the transaction.
It’s the second big restaurant deal the Red Rooster founder has signed during the pandemi.
Last August he announced a deal with Mack-Cali’s Roseland subsidiary to open Marcus at NoHu Rooftop, a rooftop bar and restaurant at the EnVue, Autograph Collection hotel on the Weehawken waterfront.
The 15,000 s/f roof deck will have Manhattan skyline views from the hotel that is part of the 200 acre Port Imperial development created by Roseland Residential Trust around the NY Waterway ferry terminal.
