Selling antiques on East 57th St.

At A Glance

212 E. 57th St.
$125 on ground floor per sq ft
5,300 sq ft

July 24, 2007

The owners of Iliad Antik are moving to midtown, and they plan to build a dramatic retail space to house their 8-year-old antiques business. Husband-and-wife team Adam Brown and Andrea Zemel are loosely basing the design of their new store on a neo-Babylonian temple.

“The space has a museum scale to it, with 15-foot ceilings,” Mr. Brown says. “The architecture plays right into the sense of drama we’re trying to create for the gallery.”

Iliad Antik specializes in modernist Hungarian paintings created between 1910 and 1950, as well as Art Deco design. After leaving a space on 58th Street, the store will open up a 5,300-square-foot shop this fall at 212 E. 57th St., between Second and Third avenues, will allow the owners to expand their offerings. Mr. Brown is negotiating with several other antique shops to house especially large rare pieces.

Broker Benjamin Fox negotiated the deal for property owner Sutton 57 before leaving Newmark Knight Frank Retail for Winick Realty Group. The asking rent was $125 per square foot for the 3,000-square-foot ground floor. The site also includes a 2,300-square-foot lower level, which will provide additional retail space and showrooms.

The location stood vacant for more than a year after the owner finished building residential condominiums upstairs.

“The space wasn’t ideal for traditional retail because it doesn’t have huge front windows,” says Allison Winters, the CB Richard Ellis broker who negotiated the deal for Iliad Antik.

Elisabeth Butler Cordova