Brookfield Property Group signed a new Saks Fifth Avenue men's store overlooking Battery Park City's Marina - where Chef Rubuchon walked away from a lease that was signed more than a year earlier.
A retailer broker who didn't want to be named has said, "It took them only days." The switch was a disappointment to advocates in the emerging dining scene where Rubuchon boasts 25 Michelin stars, more than any other chef from around the world.
The new store will open at the 250,000-square-foot shopping and dining portion of the former World Financial Center. The store will join a full-scale Saks department store and Saks off Fifth at One Liberty Plaza.
Several top restaurant brokers told The Post that Rubuchon's team "didn't have its act together" at Brookfield Place.
But Rubuchon's investment partner blamed the place for being 'too old.'
According to the New York Post, the CEO of Investment Hospitality, Alex Gaudelet, which funds and manages Rubuchon's planned new North American operations, said, "In the last few months, the realty of the space kind of kicked in."
"It's an old building," he said of 250 Vesey St., which opened as 4 World Financial Center in 1986.
It is estimated by some business sources that it might cost $10 million to construct Rubuchon's eatery, however, Gaudelet argued, "Not true - it was rather more."
The area which offers a beautiful view of the Battery Park Metropolis boat marina was to incorporate L'Atelier de Joël Rubuchon, the chef's signature positive-eating venue, in addition to a café and grourmand bakery, as reported by Walkileaks news.
Gaudelet said, "We just lately got here to a settlement with Brookfield to give up our lease."
It is predicted that Hudson Bay is going to announce the brand new males' retailer this week.
Gaudelet added, "We're in superior negotiations with a landlord" for a Rubuchon dining venue elsewhere in Manhattan, "though we don't have a signed lease yet."
