COSMETIC giant L’Oreal may be planning a makeover.
The company is checking out its real estate options now that its lease is coming due and could be looking for as much as 500,000 square feet.
The local parent company of such well-known brands as its eponymous L’Oreal, Maybelline, Ralph Lauren, Georgio Armani and Biotherm is currently esconsed in about 375,000 square feet of 575 Fifth Ave.
Though L’Oreal sold Marie-Claire magazine, it is growing and buying more companies and product lines, including the Kiehl’s line, founded in New York in 1851; the Carson ethnic lines, which include the Dark & Lovely franchise; men’s line Magic Shave and the Dermablend business.
“Some options might mean moving to new buildings – including New Jersey – and some might mean remaining in place,” a source said. “It will take time to work those through.”
The company has signs on its current building, which totals 570,000 square feet and is owned by Sterling Equities – the real estate business of Mets’ owner Fred Wilpon.
L’Oreal, whose face and lead spokesmodel is Andie MacDowell, also continues to seek respect and brand recognition as it consolidates its divisions under a new leader.
In June 2000, as part of a strategy directed by worldwide L’Oreal S.A. Chairman and CEO Lindsay Owen-Jones to build a single global corporate identity, the U.S. name was changed from Cosmair to L’Oreal USA.
In February, President and CEO Guy Peyrelongue, who will be 65 in early 2002, announced his retirement. He is helping his successor, Jean-Paul Agon, 44, until the formal changover in the fall.
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Irwin Cohen, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and Belvedere Capital had started to energize the former Gimbels and Macy’s warehouse buildings in Queens, but now have decided to focus on their Manhattan site, Chelsea Market.
The Macy’s building, now known as The Factory – a 1 million square footer on a ground lease at 30-00 47th Ave. in Long Island City – was sold at the end of last year for $54 million to a group led by Joe Cetrit and Mark Karasick, who is behind the Starrett-Lehigh Building.
We now hear that the two buyers have rounded up another group to buy the neighboring Gimble’s warehouse for $55 million. The 1922 Falchi Building is a 650,000 square footer at 31-00 47th Ave. The sellers referred calls to Douglas Harmon at Eastdil, who acted as the broker for both the sales, but he didn’t return calls.
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Actor Michael J. Fox has moved his foundation for Parkinson’s research from the Chelsea Piers to part of the eighth floor at 381 Park Ave. South.
Simply put, they “needed more space.”
The building “is well situated, well taken care of, and priced reasonably,” said John Cinosky, the broker with Atco Property Services Corp. who handled the transaction for the owners.
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The political office-hunting season has kicked off.
The Friends of Giuliani, who conducted the mayor’s last run out of 59 Maiden Lane, moved into part of the 23rd floor at 575 Eighth Ave. Bruce Teitelbaum is presiding there, bringing in the bucks for whatever. He didn’t return a call before deadline.
The 200,000-square-foot Olmstead Properties building at 38th Street is close to Penn Station.
Former Parks Commissioner Betsy Gotbaum, who is resigning her position as President of the New York Historical Society to run for Public Advocate, will run from Lower Manhattan – at least until the end of November, when the short-term lease runs out.
Gotbaum has opened her office on the second floor of the three-story building at 50 West St. – a small annex to the larger 47 West St. next door. Both are owned by Time Equities, said David Lebenstein, a Time Equities broker.
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