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Newmark is pleased to announce that its client, Yunus Shahul of Cousins Manhattan, Inc., has signed a 12-year lease to open the first Cousins Maine Lobster brick and mortar restaurant location in New York City at 77 Lexington Avenue in Kips Bay. The space measures 1,500 square feet, with a 1,200 square foot basement. The restaurant is expected to open in the 4th Quarter of 2018.
Jared Lack, managing director in Newmark’s New York City office, represented both Yunus Shahul, the New York- and Connecticut-based franchisee of Cousins Maine Lobster, and the landlord 77 Lexington Avenue Associates, LLC. Rent terms for the deal have not been disclosed.
Cousins Maine Lobster was started as a single food truck in 2012 by real-life cousins Jimmy Tselikis and Sabin Lomac. The cousins were joined by a small but dedicated staff with a passion for the Maine lobster they grew up eating and the goal of making high-quality Maine seafood accessible and affordable in diverse parts of the country. Greeted by steadily growing lines, sales and demand rose each day and the need to expand emerged.
Enter the hit ABC program Shark Tank. Show producers had been customers of the Cousins Maine Lobster food truck and decided to ask Jimmy and Sabin to go through the process of being on the show. After a couple of months of being in business, the cousins decided to take the plunge to be contestants.
“We decided from the beginning that Barbara Corcoran was the shark that we wanted to target once the show began taping,” said Cousin Jimmy. “We have formed a relationship in which Barbara plays a mentor and business partner to Sabin and me, providing solid marketing, expansion and general business advice to us each day.”
“Kips Bay is a thriving neighborhood for restaurants and offers a conducive setting for success due to the dual office and residential makeup of the area,” said Lack. “A steady flow of young professionals who live in Kips Bay coupled with the thriving Park Avenue South office corridor should make this an ideal spot for the first New York City Cousins Maine Lobster brick and mortar restaurant.”
About Newmark
Newmark (“Newmark”), operated by Newmark Group, Inc. (“Newmark Group”) (NASDAQ: NMRK), is one of the world’s leading and most trusted commercial real estate advisory firms, offering a complete suite of services and products for both owners and occupiers. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, Newmark’s 16,000 professionals operate from approximately 430 offices on six continents. Newmark’s investor/owner services and products include investment sales, agency leasing, property management, valuation and advisory, diligence, underwriting, government-sponsored enterprise lending, loan servicing, debt and structured finance and loan sales. Occupier services and products include tenant representation, real estate management technology systems, workplace and occupancy strategy, global corporate services consulting, project management, lease administration and facilities management. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com. Newmark Group is a publicly traded subsidiary of BGC Partners, Inc. (“BGC”) (NASDAQ: BGCP), a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets.
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