By Steve Cuozzo via NYPost.com on December 20, 2023
Retail specialist Andrew Goldberg, a vice-chairman at CBRE, said the phenomenon of “big brands buying real estate, which we saw a lot of in the 1980s and ‘90s, is coming back.”
Goldberg, who worked on the deal that first brought Prada to 724 Fifth in the 1990s, noted with a chuckle, “When retailers buy a building where they’re tenants, it means they have no intention of leaving.”
Leasing is on fire as well on the avenue’s prime stretch north of East 48th Street. Swarovski is coming to a former Gap site at 680 Fifth and Marc Jacobs is in talks for 645 Fifth, where an Armani A/X lease expires in 2024.
Last month, Cushman & Wakefield reaffirmed its No. 1 global ranking for Fifth Avenue as the world’s most expensive retail destination in real estate terms, with rents of $2,000 per square foot.
The Fifth Avenue phenomenon is matched on Madison Avenue north of East 57th Street, where Valentino took over the huge former Calvin Klein store and Giorgio Armani will soon open e a spectacular new flagship boutique.
New leases for Van Cleef & Arpels, Dolce & Gabbana, Peter Millar and others have left few available spaces, according to real estate firm JAACRES head Joseph Aquino.The trend is also mirrored in Soho, where there are now nearly as many marquee brands as uptown. But some middle-market corridors, such as Midtown Third Avenue and Broadway on the Upper West Side, continue to struggle.
Direct Link: https://nypost.com/2023/12/20/business/prada-buys-nyc-flagship-fifth-avenue-store-building-for-425m/