Starbucks Opening Empire State Building Location for Deliveries
By Lauren Elkies Schram March 19, 2015 4:30 pm
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Starbucks Coffee addicts will now be able to have their beverages delivered to their front door through a new delivery service set to launch in New York City at the Empire State Building, the coffee giant announced at yesterday’s annual shareholders meeting.
On Monday, Starbucks signed a lease for 1,173 square feet on the West 33rd Street side of the Empire State Building at 350 Fifth Avenue, the second lease Starbucks has in the building, a spokeswoman for Empire State Realty Trust, which owns the building, told Commercial Observer. The new lease is for 10 years and the asking rent was $200 per square foot.
Starbucks said yesterday that it is introducing a two-part complementary delivery model in the second quarter of the year. It includes “a ‘Green Apron’ barista delivery option enabling customers within specified office buildings to order food and beverages for convenient delivery by Starbucks baristas,” as well as starting in Seattle, a “strategic collaboration with Postmates, a leading on-demand delivery service, which will allow customers to order their food and beverage items via the Starbucks mobile app and receive on-demand delivery within defined areas.”
The West 33rd Street Empire State Building location will be purely a “delivery concept,” said someone with intimate knowledge of the plans, noting that the reason for a second Starbucks in the Empire State Building (the existing one is multi-level on the West 34th Street side) is: “This is a completely different concept.”
ESRT said via the spokeswoman that Starbucks picked its building at which to launch the delivery concept in New York City because “ESB tenant employee demographics are right for this service.”
The landlord’s brokers were Fred Posniak of Empire State Realty Trust along with Andrew Goldberg and Matthew Chmielecki of CBRE. David Firestein of SCG Retail represents Starbucks in Manhattan. Mr. Firestein declined to comment.
The news comes as Starbucks’ premier and larger Manhattan locations approach renewal and face much higher rents, as CO reported yesterday.
