Larry Cerullo and Steve Tallides, owners of the popular sports bar and event space Studio Square in Long Island City, sold a nearby office property at 35-01 36th Street for $24 million, or $538 a square foot, sources told The Real Deal.
The buyer is Wharton Equity Partners, the New York and Miami-based company headed by Peter Lewis and David Eisenberg.
The 44,600-square-foot property, a former factory across the street from Kaufman Astoria Studios, is home to the restaurant Tacuba Cantina Mexicana. It has about 12,300 square feet of ground floor retail, of which 5,300 square feet is vacant.
The sale also includes 33,600 square feet of air rights.
Pinnacle Realty’s George Margaronis and David Junik represented the buyer. Meridian Capital’s David Schechtman, Lipa Lieberman, Abie Kassin, and Richard Velotta represented the seller.
Wharton did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the company’s plans for the property. Junik said it was likely that it would expand the envelope of the building to include more creative office space in order to accommodate demand from tenants relocating from Manhattan.
“Because of Long Island City’s rapid expansion of residential neighborhoods, there is great need of additional retail supply,” Schechmtan said.