Ralph Lauren Renews Flagship Store Lease While Reducing Office Footprint in Manhattan
By Mark Hallum December 27, 2023 2:19 pm
reprints
Ralph Lauren is reconfiguring its footing on the Upper East Side. The company will keep its lavish Madison Avenue flagship store while cutting its office just a few blocks south by nearly 40 percent.
The fashion brand signed a 10-year renewal for its 28,000-square-foot store inside the Rhinelander Mansion at 867 Madison Avenue, between East 71st and 72nd streets, Women’s Wear Daily reported. The beneficial owner of the mansion is buried beneath an airtight LLC in property records tied to a law firm in the UK.
Ralph Lauren did not respond to a request for comment.
The names of the brokers in the deal and the asking rent were not clear. Average asking retail rent in Manhattan was $663 per square foot in the third quarter of 2023, according to a report from CBRE. WWD reported the renewal’s annual rent will range from $6 million to $9 million.
Its deal with Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), Oxford Properties Group and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System at 650 Madison Avenue, a dozen blocks south of the Rhinelander, is a little less murky, with The Real Deal reporting that Ralph Lauren signed an 11-year renewal that cuts its space in the building by 39 percent.
Ralph Lauren originally moved into the building in 1989 and has held 275,000 square feet in there as of 2013. TRD reported that its new deal brings Ralph Lauren’s footprint closer to 133,000 square feet.
Ken Meyerson and Eric Deutsch of CBRE (CBRE) negotiated on behalf of Ralph Lauren while JLL’s Frank Doyle and Mitch Konsker represented the landlords. JLL and Vornado did not respond to requests for comment. CBRE declined to comment.
Over the years, Ralph Lauren has also reworked its footprint at RXR’s 601 West 26th Street, also known as the Starrett-Lehigh Building, where it leased 450,000 square feet as of 2018 but renewed only about 250,000 square feet in October.
Ralph Lauren has occupied the historic Rhinelander Mansion since 1986, dropping $14 million to $18 million to restore the dilapidated house into the first stand-alone store owned solely by the brand, according to the Daily Beast and Ralph Lauren’s website. The brand later shifted the mansion to focus entirely on its menswear collection, WWD reported.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
