Vans Skates Onto Fifth Avenue
By Rebecca Baird-Remba November 8, 2017 4:54 pm
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Vans has signed a lease for its first Fifth Avenue flagship, landlord General Growth Properties announced last week in an earnings call.
The skatewear apparel and shoe seller has inked a deal for a 8,573-square-foot store at the base of 530 Fifth Avenue between West 44th and 45th Streets, a Vans spokeswoman told Commercial Observer. The retailer will occupy 2,563 square feet on the ground floor and 6,010 square feet on the lower level. It expects to open its doors in October 2018.
The length of the lease and asking rent weren’t immediately available. However, Fifth Avenue remains one of the most expensive retail markets in the city, despite falling rents and shuttering stores. Asking rent on Fifth Avenue between 42nd and 49th Streets is $1,111 a square foot, having fallen 8.6 percent year over year, according to last month’s third-quarter market report from Cushman & Wakefield.
The Fifth Avenue location will be Vans’ second outpost in Manhattan. The “Off the Wall” brand has run a small Vans DQM General boutique at 93 Grand Street in Soho since 2011, and it just opened a new store at 102 North 6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There are also two traditional mall stores at Queens Center in Elmhurst and Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. Besides the retail operation, the 51-year-old company has the House of Vans event and performance space at 25 Franklin Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
RXR Realty, GGP and Thor Equities bought the 26-story office and retail tower at 530 Fifth Avenue for $595 million in June 2014, property records indicate. However, only Thor and GGP own the retail condo, which they purchased for $295 million. (The office condo portion went for $300 million.) Other retail tenants in the building include Chase Bank, Fossil and Desigual.
