Perry Ellis International wanted a looser fit for its menswear division.
So with two office-location leases due to expire, the publicly traded apparel and accessories designer/distributor just inked one of the year’s biggest moves — into 96,350 square feet at Edison Properties’ 1120 Sixth Ave. between 43rd and 44th streets, aka the Hippodrome Building.
It’s a consolidation and roughly 20,000-square-foot expansion from Perry Ellis’s current menswear office sites at 1114 Sixth Ave. (Grace Building) and 42 W. 39th St. The firm will keep some of its 39th Street space for a while.
The complex, long-term deal was driven in part by lease expirations at the company’s current locations. The move to 1120 Sixth Ave. is the rare large transaction this year by a firm not involved in law or media.
As explained by Jones Lang LaSalle Vice-Chairmen Robert Martin and Matthew Astrachan, who repped PEI along with JLL’s Alexander Chudnoff and Brad Lane, it consists of a 40,000 square-foot direct lease and a near 60,000-square-foot sublease from Huron Consulting, which converts to direct lease after several years.
PEI is taking part of the seventh floor and the entire eighth and 14th floors. Asking rents at 1120 Sixth are $70s per square foot for direct space.
PEI owns or licenses a brands portfolio including Perry Ellis, Savane, Jantzen, Callaway Golf Apparel and Nike Swim. It had revenue of more than $1 billion last year.
The move to 1120 Sixth “allows Perry Ellis to consolidate its menswear operations into one high-end building,” Astrachan said, as well as keeping it in close proximity to the company’s women’s division offices.
Another part of the new location’s appeal, Martin said, is “the unique nature of the eighth floor, which offers a double-height ceiling with terrific light and an open feel. In addition, it was newly built with high-end finishes, affording Perry Ellis the opportunity to move in with minimal changes.”
Cushman & Wakefield’s John Cefaly and Michael Burgio acted for Edison and JLL’s Lisa Kiell and Douglas Neye for Huron.
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Hammacher Schlemmer is staying at its historic Manhattan flagship after all, confounding predictions — notably our own — that it would soon be gone from 145 E. 57th St.
The fabled purveyor of high-end gadgets has renewed a long-term netlease of the 12-story building between Third and Lexington avenues with the landlord, Brazil’s Malzoni Group, which bought it in 2010 for $34 million.
Hammacher has been at the address since 1926. The store occupies the first three floors plus lower floors, and the company subleases the other floors to office tenants.
When Malzoni bought the building in May 2010, we said it “all but guaranteed” the store would close by the end of that year as the new landlord sought a higher-paying tenant.
We’re glad our dire prediction proved wrong. It was based not only on the word of real-estate brokers at the time, but also on what a Hammacher executive wishing not to be named told us — that the store was actively searching for a new Manhattan home.
In fact, the outcome was long in the balance. Now, the netlease renewal (terms unknown) is not only good news for Hammacher customers, but also a rare bright spot for the 57th Street retail scene, plagued river to river on many blocks with empty storefronts.
Many are the result of landlords either keeping space off the market for future development, or holding out for rents no one has yet been willing to pay — e.g., the block west of Hammacher, where Charles S. Cohen controls most of the nearly vacant, entire north blockfront.
The emporium offers all kinds of cutting-edge electronic and mechanical products that “solve problems, further lifestyles and make distinctive gifts” — ranging from a Dirt-Detecting Robotic Vacuum to an Inflatable Backyard Log Flume.
The fabled store became somewhat run-down in recent years when its fate at the location became unclear. But the company’s human-resources manager, Debra Trueman, said a major renovation is in the works next year.
Although a New York retail landmark, Hammacher Schlemmer is mainly a catalog and Web merchandiser — the Manhattan spot is its only actual store.