Retail by Mona Tripling Office Footprint in Midtown Relocation
By Celia Young January 26, 2023 12:13 pm
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Two-year-old retail real estate brokerage Retail by Mona scored a deal to triple its Manhattan office footprint.
Retail by Mona signed a long-term lease to move from roughly 2,000 square feet at 530 Park Avenue to 6,500 square feet at 477 Madison Avenue, a building owned by one of its main backers, RFR Holding, according to Retail by Mona.
Asking rent was $77 per square foot, according to RFR.
The brokerage needed more room for its growing team and chose to move into the Midtown property in January because of its proximity to the storefronts the firm represents, including 477 Madison itself, said Brandon Singer, Retail by Mona’s co-founder.
“It puts us in a position in Midtown that is very accessible for all the work that we do,” Singer said. “And we needed more space. We’ve expanded our employee count threefold in the past couple of months, and we’re going to keep growing.”
Singer and fellow former Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) broker Michael Cody founded Retail by Mona in September 2020 with an investment by Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’ RFR. Rosen and Fuchs also hired the brokerage to represent all of RFR’s retail spaces.
Since then, Retail by Mona secured a U.S. flagship location for high-end Italian clothing seller LuisaViaRoma at 1 Bond Street, represented RFR in Swiss watchmaker Breitling’s Meatpacking District store at 875 Washington Street, and handled the deal for Gucci’s 10,000-square-foot outpost at 400 West 14th Street for landlord Saab Associates.
Singer brokered Retail by Mona’s office lease. RFR handled the deal in-house via AJ Camhi, Robert Weller, Ryan Silverman and Paul Milunec. A representative for RFR confirmed the deal but declined further comment.
Other tenants at the 24-story building between East 51st and East 52nd streets include law firm Rivkin Radler, investment company Atlas Merchant Capital and asset manager Ariel Alternatives.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
