Pricetag: $1,300 per square foot: Japanese group pays well to keep ex-smithy's shop as retail property. (San Francisco)

Pricetag: $1,300 per square foot

Japanese group pays well to keep ex-smithy's shop as retail property

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Empire Group sold a former blacksmith shop near Union Square for about $13 million to a Japanese investment group.

Kobe Investment Co., based in Los Angeles, paid about $1,300 a square foot for a three-story building that fronts both 156 Geary St. and 155 Maiden Lane, sources told the Business Times.

The 10,000-square-foot building houses the chic Chanel Boutique on Maiden Lane, and another French retailer, Ted Lapidus Boutique. The price is believed to be about the highest per-square-foot ever paid for a retail property in San Francisco. Kobe and The Empire Group closed the deal quietly Jan. 31.

"Kobe owns a portfolio of high-end retail (property) in California and Hawaii," said Marc Danziger, a commercial real estate broker with …