Modell’s Grabs Old Sports Authority Space for Manhattan Flagship
By Terence Cullen October 26, 2016 12:09 pm
reprints
After previously mulling a deal to buy some of the old Sports Authority leases, Modell’s Sporting Goods has snatched up the now-defunct store’s 845 Third Avenue location.
The sporting goods retailer has inked a 20,000-square-foot lease to occupy the base of the Rudin family’s 360,000-square-foot building between East 51st and East 52nd Streets, according to a press release from the landlord. This is the second time in as many weeks that the New York City-based sporting goods company has signed a sizable lease on the East Side of Manhattan.
As part of the 10-year lease at 845 Third Avenue, Modell’s is taking over the ground and second floors, which were occupied by Sports Authority until the company went belly up and declared bankruptcy in April. Modell’s also has the basement, which will be used for storage.
Asking rent on the ground floor was $250 per square foot, according to The New York Post, which first reported news of the deal. A Rudin spokeswoman told Commercial Observer that the asking rent on the second floor was $100 per square foot.
The location is slated to become Modell’s flagship store in Manhattan, William Rudin, the chief executive officer of property manager Rudin Management Company, said in the release. It should open in mid-November. Sports Authority shuttered at the location in August, Rudin’s Robert Steinman said via the spokeswoman. It exited its lease early at 845 Third Avenue in September as part of its bankruptcy filing.
“We are so thrilled to be in such a marquee location for our flagship store in Manhattan,” Mitchell Modell, the chief executive officer of Modell’s, said in a statement.
Steinman represented the landlord in-house and did the deal directly with Modell’s.
In June, Dick’s Sporting Goods purchased the Sports Authority brand for $13 million. Modell’s and Sports Direct International had been mulling buying 100 to 200 of the shuttered sporting goods retailer’s locations in the summer before backing out.
But that hasn’t deterred the 127-year-old Modell’s from expanding. CO reported last week that the retailer would take 17,500 square feet at Thor Equities’ 135 East 125th Street, its second location along the popular Harlem thoroughfare.
