Museum Takes Artful Approach to Cutting Rent

Priced out of midtown, Dahesh Museum regroups with lease for space on western fringe of SoHo.
After four years without a home, Dahesh Museum of Art has signed on for a new location. The 16-year-old nonprofit recently signed a four-year lease for 3,500 square feet at 145 Sixth Ave., on the corner of Dominick Street. Asking rent for the space, which includes a 500-square-foot basement, was $75 a square foot, though the deal closed for less.

Dahesh will take possession of the space in mid-July. The museum, which exhibits European art from the 19th and 20th centuries, had been located at the IBM building at 580 Madison Ave. at East 56th Street, until 2007, when a rent increase made the space unaffordable.

According to ROXANNE BETESH, the Sinvin Real Estate broker who represented landlord JWS, the downtown location is close enough to SoHo to generate heavy foot traffic, but far enough from the heart of the neighborhood to still have a reasonable rent.

“It’s not prime SoHo real estate—it’s on the western portion,” she said.
David Badner of Norman Bobrow & Co. represented Dahesh in negotiations.