Gap Renews for Entire Block in Flatiron District
By Laura Kusisto September 23, 2010 8:11 pm
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For almost as long as there have been yuppies, there’s been a Gap in the Flatiron district. The retailer will continue its reign over an entire block on Fifth Avenue by renewing its 35,000-square-foot lease for 10 years.
The store between 17th and 18th streets is the largest retail space leased this year in the Flatiron, according to a release. “This significant transaction … is not only a testament to the attractiveness of the retail location for Gap’s different brands and the continuing vitality of the Lower 5th Avenue/Flatiron,” said Nicholas Haines, of landlord Bromley Companies, “but also underscores the strength of the long-standing relationship that The Bromley Companies and the Gap have developed over the last 20 years.”
The asking rent was $250 a square foot, Mr. Haines told The Observer. The renewal starts Jan. 1.
Even as many other clothing chains are shuttering stores, the perky clothier has kept smiling, buoyed by sales of its affordable Old Navy line. In fiscal 2009, the Gap conglomerate did $14.2 billion in sales. It also signed one of 2009’s biggest leases, to open a 265,000-square-foot Tribeca headquarters.
The sprawling Flatiron space includes a Gap, Gap Kids and GapBaby and GapBody, ensuring everyone will be well clothed in this season’s hot item–jeans–which probably hasn’t changed since the first time it signed a lease here.
Mr. Haines represented the landlord in-house. Gap wasn’t represented in the transaction.
Update: The Gap also renewed an 11,000-square-foot lease at 126 Fifth Avenue as a subtenant of Barnes & Noble. Ariel Schuster and Izzy Anthony of Robert K. Futterman & Associates represented the tenant, and Marco Ellman, of Ellman Realty Advisors, represented the landlord, 126-8 Fifth Avenue LLC. The leases were signed in June, The Real Deal reported.
lkusisto@observer.com
