Andrew Goldberg, Broker Behind Trump Tower’s Gucci Deal, Thinks Retail is Ready to Splurge on the West Side.

You’re very familiar with Plaza district retail, right? You did that huge Gucci deal at Trump Tower.
Yes, Gucci is on 56th and Fifth. That was a tremendous deal at the time and even today that deal is a high watermark. It was just under 50,000 square feet. We had to assemble the space at the Trump Tower. It was a great deal—it gave Gucci over 100 feet of frontage on Fifth Avenue in a four-story, and it gave Donald [Trump] a premier brand at fabulous economics. [Editor’s Note: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, owner of The Commercial Observer]

Deals like that, and obviously Nordstrom as well, don’t come around that often, do they?
It would be great to have that every year, but no. It’s not everyday that the corner of Trump Tower becomes available and Donald Trump tells you that he wants you to go and arrange a blockbuster deal for him and do whatever you have to to get it done in terms of buying out the existing tenants and assembling the space.

Is that what he said?
At the time, we went to Donald and said we had a tenant in the space who we repped that wanted out of the space because maybe we didn’t need so much space and they were looking for other locations to decrease the size of the store. We moved them to Madison and 70th. At the same time we knew Gucci needed more space and we put the whole thing together. The timing worked out well. Many things had to happen all at once.

Seems like a lot is happening on 57th Street lately. Barnett landed Nordstrom and is creating space nearby at his residential development One57. There’s the Drake Hotel site. There’s 3 Columbus Circle, which is attracting tenants …
You just talked about a lot of different shopping areas, actually. On 57th Street there’s 5th Avenue, and then you go east to Mad and Park and that’s always been high-end luxury retail and that will continue to be that way. When you went west there was always, well, you didn’t have the same luxury going west. What will happen if Nordstrom does happen, I think that will help rent 3 Columbus, and once you have a tenant there I think all of that will come together, and that will help bring people west. You’ll start to see the weaker tenants on that block disappear and become infilled by stronger tenants drawn by those big tenants.

What’sgoing to be offered a the World Trade Center site in terms of the retail, and will you be doing deals there?
Westfield [the WTC retail operator] has been close to the vest in terms of what their plan is. The World Financial Center has come out with their plan, however. I am starting to talk to the brands, the tenants that they would like to see down there. I think over the next few months, maybe six months or so, you will start to hear about everyone’s plans in more detail, and people will start making commitments. A lot of tenants want to know what’s happening at the WTC site before they commit to the World Financial Center.

Who are your tenants?
I deal with more luxury brands. The bulk of my business on the tenant side really just evolved that way. We are doing things outside of that, such as the theater. I’m doing the rollout for Argo Tea—they’re great, they’re out of Chicago.