FIFTH Avenue is weather ing the global downturn better than any major retail street in the world, according to Cushman & Wakefield, with asking rents of $1,700 sq. foot compared with $1,525 on the No. 2 stretch, Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay.
But it’s another story at the Plaza Hotel.
The location once throbbed with locals and tourists, but today there is life only in the hotel’s lounges and check-in areas. The Plaza’s public spaces are shockingly empty of stores, restaurants and people.
Asking rents for the downstairs “Grand Concourse” space are below $200 — a joke in a building that’s home to hedge-fund kings and Russian oligarchs.
It’s all a far cry from owner The Elad Group’s claim a few years ago that Britain’s Harrods might open in the Plaza.
The famed Palm Court — the first thing a visitor sees — closed at the end of the year. It’s mind-boggling that Elad hasn’t reopened what’s long been one of the city’s iconic eateries.
Meanwhile, the Oak Room restaurant is open only for dinner, having given up serving lunch months ago. (The Oak Bar remains open at lunch). The former Edwardian Room, which housed a restaurant right up until Elad closed the old Plaza, remains dark.
Elad has been able to inflate the occupancy data for the building’s 160,000 square feet of retail space by including the large Caudalie spa and Warren-Tricomi Salon in the count.
But there are only four stores on the ground floor behind the Palm Court. Downstairs, only 10 spaces can reasonably be called “stores” or galleries, and they include what’s basically a shoeshine place.
Last week, luxury shirtmaker Eton of Sweden shuttered its store after less than a year in the lower space, which has all the charm of a suburban outlet mall.
Landlord Elad’s “Retail Collection” is the lamest-looking selling space since the last days of East 57th Street’s forgotten Place des Antiquaires. The lower level is given over to a few display cases selling cosmetics and jewelry, “boutiques” for Plaza-related merchandise and empty halls.
The “Grand Concourse” is asking a measly $150 to $175 a square foot.
Kristin Franzese, Elad’s executive vice-president of retail, tried her best to put a positive spin on the situation, saying the Plaza is in good shape considering the weak economy.
She said new stores are coming (including two next week she wouldn’t name).
Leading retail brokers have snickered at the Plaza ever since Elad reopened it as a mixed condo-hotel property. Lansco President Alan Victor said, “The access is cumbersome and the location itself leaves something to be desired because it’s far set off from Fifth Avenue with no visibility.”
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TWO more giant, long-term lease renewals by very different kinds of tenants at very different locations have given the stabilizing market more reason for confidence.
At 1251 Sixth Avenue, Japan’s Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. signed on with landlord Mitsui for 169,000 square feet for 15 more years, sources said. There’s no word on the asking rent. We’re told a CB Richard Ellis team including Frederick Fackelmayer, Robert Flippin and Doug Lehman repped the bank; Newmark Knight Frank’s Nick Berger, David Falk and Peter Shimkin repped the ownership.
MLB Advanced Media, (a.k.a., MLB.com), renewed on 120,000 feet for 10 years at Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Ave. Newmark’s Falk is said to have brokered that deal but no one would comment.
Jon Mechanic, real estate chair man of law firm Fried, Frank, said of the renewal phe nomenon, “People have made a decision it’s a good opportunity to lock in transactions while the opportunities present themselves and which may seem very favorable in the long run.” steve.cuozzo@nypost.com