Crocs Opening New SoHo Flagship As It Changes Up Stores in Herald Square

Footwear company Crocs has leased a global flagship in SoHo at 543 Broadway, where it will open this summer, Commercial Observer has learned. 

Meanwhile, Crocs has made another move near Herald Square by opening at 140 West 34th Street while its own store up the block at 152 West 34th Street is getting a facelift.

In SoHo, the rubber shoe maker signed a lease for a 4,200-square-foot space that includes 3,700 square feet in the basement, according to tenant broker Josh Podell of Podell Real Estate Advisors. Crocs will take over the storefront from backpack seller Hershel Supply Co., which closed last year. The asking rent was $500 per square foot.

Crocs will consider the spot a flagship as it will feature design elements not seen in other Crocs shops around the world.

This busy shopping block between Prince and Spring streets is also home to Uniqlo, Armani A/X, Swarovski and other national retailers. Calvin Klein is to open down the street at 530 Broadway while GU opened already in 568-678 Broadway, which previously housed Forever 21.

In Herald Square, Crocs opened in 9,000 square feet at 140 West 34th on Feb. 21, just a slither to the east of its permanent green- and yellow-fronted spot at 152 West 34th, after signing a lease in October.

The four-story property can also be branded across its entire exterior with a cartoony croc face if the brand so desires, just like its old home at 152 West 34th. It’s unclear when Crocs plans to return to 152 West 34th, but permits were filed to fix the concrete around the sidewalk vault in front of the store, city records show.

The new storefront was previously occupied by Vans and more recently by some holiday pop-ups.

Both spaces are right across from Macy’s on the south side of West 34th Street and will flank the upcoming 79,000-square-foot Primark store that will open next year in the former Old Navy.

Crocs was represented in both deals by Podell along with Michael O’Neill of Cushman & Wakefield (CWK).

The SoHo deal was done directly with landlord Jared Eptstein of Aurora Capital Associates. 

The 140 West 34th Street building ownership was represented by Richard Skulnik and Evan Schuckman of Ripco Real Estate. The asking rent was $1.5 million per year.

The brokers did not immediately return requests for comment.

Its new flagship puts Croc in the heart of SoHo, which has bounced back nicely since the pandemic with leasing increasing and rents rising, according to the new Real Estate Board of New York retail report for the second half of 2024. The average rent on that stretch of Broadway was $489 per foot, a 1.7 percent increase from the first half of 2024 and a 22.3 percent jump year-over-year.

West 34th Street has not recovered as fast as SoHo and other shopping corridors.

The REBNY report for the second half of 2024 found average asking rents of $436 per foot on West 34th Street between Fifth and Seventh avenues. These were down 11 percent from the first half of 2024. Rents there peaked in the spring of 2015 when the highest average rent was $1,000 per foot.     

Along with Primark, which will open its city flagship in 2026, another new West 34th Street retailer is the city’s first Ghirardelli Chocolate & Ice Cream, which has been open since last summer at the Empire State Building. 

And Dave & Adam’s Card World, which has outposts in Cooperstown and Buffalo, also opened a card trading collectibles pop-up in the base of the ESB in October while awaiting its permanent space at Empire State Realty Trust‘s other nearby building at 1350 Broadway.