Taking the 5th (Ave.)
Luxury thrives north of 48th St.
FIFTH Avenue’s retail scene is rocksolid from 48th to 58th streets. It’s coalescing after years of uncertainty from 42nd to 43rd streets. But there’s a big, gaping question mark — and a mess of unsightly plywood and scaffolding — in between.
Most of the prime shopping corridor from 48th Street on up is thriving. Highend jeweler Wempe is expanding into former Swarovski and Lindt chocolate storefronts near 53rd Street. Victoria’s Secret is taking over the corner left behind by H&M at Vornado’s 640 Fifth at 51st Street. Two H&Mowned brands, COS and & Other Stories, are replacing the H&M that was at Stawski’s 505 Fifth Ave. Microsoft will soon open a flagship in the former Fendi space at 677 Fifth.
The entire threequarter milelong corridor between the New York Public Library and the Plaza Hotel is basically healthy, although a far cry from the uninterrupted luxury of long ago.
“Fifth Avenue now offers pricing at almost every price point,” said Douglas Elliman retail leasing queen Faith Hope Consolo. “It’s begun to look like the ChampsÉlysées in Paris, where you have Apple and Microsoft alongside the highestend fashion.”
There’s only one large question mark north of Saks Fifth Avenue: the fate of the former Juicy Couture space at 650 Fifth Ave., now on the market via Cushman & Wakefield. (Brokers did not return calls). As my colleague Lois Weiss reported, the 30,000 squarefoot retail unit was purchased in 2013 by SL Green and Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Realty for $50 million. Juicy Couture moved out last year.
But the larger mystery lies south of 48th, where redevelopment, “repositioning” and speculation have left tens of thousands of square feet of precious store space up for grabs.
“There’s a real shakeup under way,” Consolo said. “Fifth is strong to the north and much better than it was at 42nd Street, but there’s a lot of change and flux between 43rd and 48th, especially on the west side of the avenue.”
Consolo said that while groundfloor asking rents run from $3,500 to $3,800 north of Saks between 49th and 50th streets, they’re about half that to the south.
Cushman & Wakefield reports just 10.3 percent retail availability from 49th to 60th streets, but a whopping 26.2 percent from 42nd to 49th streets at the end of the second quarter, up from 24.6 percent a year ago.
A big site to watch is 520 Fifth Ave. at 43rd Street — an empty lot. Westport, Conn.based Ceruzzi Properties and China’s Shanghai Municipal Investment paid $325 million for the land plus air rights from Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities, which had planned a 73story condo/hotel/retail tower.
Ceruzzi reportedly intends to follow through on Sitt’s plan filed with the Buildings Department, but the site remains vacant, with no permits visible.
Meanwhile, the entire east blockfront owned by Moinian Group between 44th and 45th streets is on the market via RKF, although a Duane Reade is still there. RKF says the three multilevel spaces comprise nearly 82,000 square feet.
At Stawski Partners’ 565 Fifth Ave. at 46th Street, some 45,000 square feet are on the market following the closing of BuildaBear and Redken hair salon.
Also highly visible, the former Bank Leumi space as well as an adjacent storefront at 579 Fifth at 47th Street are on the market via a JLL team.
And on the messy west side between 46th and 47th streets, some landlords have yet to get the message that Fifth Avenue is about luxury and better qualitymass market retailing than about schlock shops for uninformed tourists.