According to Northwest Atlantic, it has recently closed on the following deals:
Northwest Atlantic completed the signing of a 380 s/f retail lease for Baked by Melissa at 190 E. 42nd St. between Park and Lexington. This marks the locally-based baker's third location.
According to Vince Sweeney, the broker at Northwest Atlantic who represented the tenant, "This is the perfect mid-town site because of the tremendous confluence of commuters, office workers, and hotel visitors."
Adjacent to the Grand Hyatt, the hotel is also the landlord. The lease was signed the first week of August. Baked by Melissa will open sometime in the fall. The site was formally a jewelry store. This innovative cupcake concept was founded by Melissa Bushell. She's created an award winning line of miniature stuffed cupcakes so that dessert lovers can taste more flavors without the post dessert guilt trip. She's garnered national attention and has been featured on the Today Show, People Magazine and Us. Bake by Melissa is also in Soho and Union Square.
Brian Teppel of LRN Realty Corp. was a partner with Sweeny on the deal. "Last year when the recession hit hard," Sweeney says, "Brian and I joined forces to focus on tenants other brokers overlooked. Our mandate is to find up-and-coming retailers who have solid backing and the desire to expand."
Earlier this year, the two did Popbar in the West Village, a gourmet popsicle retailer. Teppel and Sweeney have several deals in process and hope to make more announcements soon.
Mathew Chemielecki of CBRE represented the landlord.
Northwest Atlantic handled the signing of a 1,600 s/f retail lease for Eight Bit & Up at 35-37 St. Marks Place and Second Ave.
The second floor corner space comes with ten feet of ground floor frontage and is situated in the building known as the "Theater Condominium."
This is the first location for Eight Bit & Up who intend on creating an exciting gaming environment. Eight Bit will host in-store tournaments and sell a diverse product selection that includes new and refurbished video games and consoles. Adjacent retailers include Dallas BBQ, STOMP, and Baoguette Café.
"This site is in great position to take advantage of the perfect demographic for the advanced gaming community," said Kyle Allen, the Northwest Atlantic broker who represented Eight Bit. "The St. Marks area is a vibrant market with youth and students who seek authentic outlets for clothes, accessories, and now video games. This premier corner presents a tremendous branding opportunity for this unique concept. It will draw from the East Village and is still easily accessible by public transportation for those outside the immediate trade area."
Eight Bit & Up are planning to open several stores in the metro area. According to Marcus Richardson, the managing director of Eight Bit, "I've been in the video game industry all my life and there's definitely an opportunity for our first Manhattan store to succeed in this space. We will now be able to bring our repair service and large array of retro-games right to the core of our customer base."
"Finding the right demographics," said Allen, "is the key, and this first location is perfect. Eight Bit is focused on knowing its customers and providing a high level of service that includes in-store repair and gaming competitions."

Northwest Atlantic brokered the signing of a two-level 11,000 s/f retail lease for Staples at 675 Third Ave. on the Southeast corner of 43rd. The new location has 5,270 s/f on the ground level and 6,479 s/f on the second floor.
The new location slated to open in the late fall will include Staples new Copy/Print format which offers full printing capabilities and computer technical support.
According to Chase Welles, executive vice president of North-west Atlantic and the broker who represented Staples, "This is a more centrally located position to where they were in the area. The site also has better flow and signage at street level. Staples signed a 15-year lease."
The two older locations were at 205 East 42nd and 730 3rd at the corner of 45th. Those stores are scheduled to close in the fall when the new location opens.
Staples is the world's largest office products company with over $23 billion in sales. The company serves businesses of all sizes and consumers in 27 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Welles has worked with Staples for over four years and this represents his tenth deal with the office supply retailer in the Metro Region. 675 is a Durst Building. The landlord was represented in-house by John Grotto. Tags: