Ray Yadidi, a frequent partner of Isaac Chetrit, is planning a 15-story office building on a vacant Garment District site, sources told The Real Deal.
Yadidi’s Garment District-based investment firm Sioni Group is expected to file plans with the city’s Department of Buildings next week for a 65,000-square-foot property at 44 West 37th Street, located between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Sources familiar with the plan said the firm is looking to attract tech tenants, a couple showrooms, and a restaurant for the 3,500-square-foot ground floor.
Sioni paid $9 million for the two-story retail building on the site in 2014, and then demolished it.
The property will be one of the few new-construction office buildings in the Garment District, with projected asking rents in the mid-$60s per square foot, sources said. The firm plans to break ground later this year and wrap up construction by March 2018, sources said.
Brian Newman of Newman Design [TRDataCustom] was hired as the architect of record.
Representatives for Sioni Group declined to comment.
Yadidi formed real estate investment firm Sioni Group in 1992 with his brother Jack. Their father founded women’s clothing brand Sioni, which sells its wares at Bloomingdale’s and other department stores.
Sioni Group owns 12 New York City buildings, most of them located in the Garment District. Half of Sionio’s real estate holdings are owned in partnership with Chetrit of AB & Sons; the rest are owned solo.
Yadidi and Chetrit are partnering to build a skyscraper with as many as 80 stories on Sixth Avenue between West 36th and 37th streets.