Bondi Sushi picks Rockefeller Center for its biggest New York site

Bondi Sushi, the Japanese restaurant brand based in New York and Miami, has leased 4,400 square feet at Rockefeller Group's 1221 Avenue of the Americas for its 15th location and its largest in New York, the landlord said Monday.

The lease is a bet that Midtown's office crowds are back. The 2.6 million-square-foot tower reached 98% occupancy earlier this month after the law firm Vedder agreed to take its entire 34th floor, and Bondi is designing the new restaurant around the people who work there.

Chief Executive David Hess said the space will have a double-height ceiling, a standalone cocktail bar, the chain's first private dining room and a large takeout area, the New York Post reported. He said in a statement that Bondi will add food and drink built for large groups, from office lunches to private dinners.

“We see Midtown leading New York again on daytime traffic,” David Abrams of Masonre, who represented Bondi with Jeff Jacobson, told Commercial Observer.

The restaurant will occupy space on the tower's West 48th Street side that was previously home to 48 Lounge. It joins Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, Oceana and the coffee bar Zibetto in the building.

The lease term and rent were not disclosed. Retail space in the nearby Plaza District along Fifth Avenue had an average asking rent of $2,471 a square foot in the third quarter, according to CBRE data cited by Commercial Observer. Marisa Gadlin, Rockefeller Group's chief administrative officer, worked with Eric Gelber and Jordan Kaplan of CBRE to represent the landlord.

The Rockefeller Center deal follows Bondi's first Midtown restaurant, near Bryant Park at 461 Fifth Avenue, which opened in January.