A new restaurant called Solerum has signed a 20-year lease for 4,744 square feet at the base of 2 Gold Street, the 53-story luxury rental tower in Manhattan's Financial District. The elevated Hawaiian, Caribbean, and Asian fusion concept comes from restaurateurs Eoin Foyle and Darren Shore, who already run several dining spots within blocks of the building.
Landlord TF Cornerstone arranged the new lease signing with Solerum at the base of 2 Gold Street, according to the New York Real Estate Journal. The location puts Solerum directly across the street from Mezcali, Foyle and Shore's Mexican restaurant at 83 Maiden Lane, and about three blocks from their American tavern The Malt House at 9 Maiden Lane, as reported by Commercial Observer. The pair's broader portfolio also includes Allswell in Sarasota, Florida, and a second Malt House location on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village.
A Deliberate Cluster in the Financial District
The Solerum signing reflects what Commercial Observer describes as a deliberate cluster strategy by Foyle and Shore, who are building a concentrated hospitality footprint in Lower Manhattan by establishing Solerum across from Mezcali and blocks from The Malt House, leveraging existing neighborhood foot traffic. Foyle and Shore first expanded into the Financial District a decade ago, opening a tri-level version of The Malt House at 9 Maiden Lane back in 2015, per Downtown Magazine's account of that opening. Eoin Foyle said Solerum's arrival at 2 Gold Street represents continued investment in New York City and the Financial District.
Darren Shore and Eoin Foyle are listed as co-owners of Solerum, which the New York Real Estate Journal describes as an elevated Hawaiian-Caribbean-Asian fusion restaurant. The concept plans to create a dining destination inspired by the culinary traditions of Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Asia. Solerum joins Bond Vet and other retail offerings already operating at 2 Gold Street.
Inside the 53-Story Tower
Built in 2003 and designed by Avinash Malhotra Architects with interior design by Rockwell Group, 2 Gold Street offers 650 rental residences ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments, according to StreetEasy building records, which also note the tower's floor-to-ceiling thermopane windows and open floor plans. Amenities include a glass-enclosed heated lap pool, a fitness center and yoga room, co-working spaces, landscaped outdoor areas, and resident lounges. TF Cornerstone spokesperson Steve Gonzalez said the company is committed to curating a retail experience that enhances residents' everyday lives and serves the broader community.
The building has a notable resiliency history. After catastrophic storm surge flooding from Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 flooded the lobby and basement with salt water and forced temporary tenant evacuations, owner TF Cornerstone invested $15 million in structural repairs and flood-resiliency barrier gates, according to a 2013 report from the Observer. TF Cornerstone has continued expanding elsewhere in the city, including tax abatement filings for 1,300-plus units across Chelsea and Greenpoint, as Hoodline reported in June.
How the Deal Compares in the Market
Tenant brokers Manu Wendum and John DiGangi of Retail by MONA negotiated the 20-year agreement alongside landlord representatives Steven Baker, Daniyel Cohen, and Tom Galo of RTL Partners, Commercial Observer reported. The deal's scale stood out citywide: The Real Deal reported that Solerum's 4,700-square-foot lease ranked among the largest retail leases signed across New York in July, alongside other major July deals including a Whole Foods in Yorkville and Purple Style Labs on Madison Avenue.
On price, the numbers tell a mixed story. Commercial Observer reported that average retail asking rent along the nearby Broadway corridor from Battery Park to Chambers Street reached $224 per square foot in the second quarter of the year, while the real estate database Traded separately reported the asking rent for the 2 Gold Street retail space at $105 per square foot. Commercial Observer's coverage frames that gap as evidence that asking rents on off-prime Financial District side streets remain competitive compared with major thoroughfares like Broadway.
Why Landlords Are Betting on Full-Service Dining
The lease arrives amid a broader shift in how Manhattan landlords use ground-floor retail. A REBNY retail market report published in February found that food, fitness, and experiential concepts led retail expansion across Manhattan in early 2026, with average asking rents increasing across half of the borough's major corridors. StreetEasy's annual market report, published in January, separately identified the Financial District as the top New York City neighborhood to watch for the year, citing rising residential sales and sustained tenant interest.
For TF Cornerstone, securing a 20-year commitment for nearly 4,750 square feet fits that pattern, with developers increasingly using full-service, experiential food and beverage destinations to enhance tenant amenities in large luxury rental towers. Combined with the building's post-Sandy resiliency investments, the Solerum lease underscores how the Financial District has continued its evolution into a round-the-clock residential neighborhood rather than a strictly nine-to-five office district.
