Christmas rush of retailers clamoring for W&M Properties.

Best Buy will open the first of its new mobile communications specialty stores in Manhattan at 10 Union Square East, a new restaurant also will open at that location, and Sprint Nextel has signed an early lease renewal for the prime space it occupies at Third Avenue and East 86th Street, reports W&M Properties, the leasing and managing agent for the ownership of the retail condos at both locations.

Best Buy, the Minneapolis-based electronics retailer, signed a 10-year lease to occupy a 1,600 s/ f store at the high-traffic corner of East 14th Street and Park Avenue South, near an entrance to the Union Square subway station, which is the city's third busiest. Best Buy recently entered into a joint-venture deal with the UK's Carphone Warehouse Group, Plc. to market cell phones internationally, and expects to open for business at Union Square in time for the coming holiday season.

The other new tenant at 10 Union Square East is LM Restaurant Group LLC, which has signed a long-term lease to occupy a 4,500 s/f space on the corner of Irving Place and East 15th Street, where it will open a restaurant this fall.

The Best Buy and LM premises are both part of a 58,000 s/f retail condo, owned by a Wien & Malkin-led partnership, which comprises the entire base of Zeckendorf Towers.

Best Buy was represented by Andrew Mandell of RIPCO Real Estate Corp.; LM was represented by Robert Shapiro of City Center Real Estate. Sprint Nextel was represented in its lease negotiations by Mark Geraghty and Dolly McCarson of CB Richard Ellis.

On Manhattan's Upper East Side, Sprint Nextel will remain in its 3,173 s/f store at 169 East 86th Street, at least through April 2011, as the result of an early lease renewal. The site, which is just off the northwest corner at Third Avenue, is near two major residential-retail developments under construction on East 86th Street, where Barnes & Noble and the fashionable Swedish retailer H&M both recently signed long-term leases for outlets of 55,000 and 30,000 s/f respectively.

"With all the action at this key crossroads, Sprint was very receptive to the idea of locking in the space well in advance of expiration," said says Fred C. Posniak, senior vice president of W&M Properties, who negotiated this deal and the Union Square transactions. "The original lease had a year to go when we signed the renewal."

The Sprint space is part of the 56,250 s/f retail condo--also owned by a Wien & Malkin partnership--that adjoins The Gotham residential co-op and includes space on Third Avenue.

Posniak notes that a key corner retail space in The Gotham that includes substantial frontage on both Third Avenue and East 87th Street remains available. Interest in the 4,775 s/f premises is "very strong" according to Posniak, because of the surge in new development and vibrant character of the 86th Street corridor.. He added, "Working with an existing tenant, we are thrilled to have this hot space on the market in advance of its lease expiration."

W&M Properties is the acquisition, management and leasing arm of the Malkin family.