Fifth Avenue retail hits the market asking $1,000 a foot

Rents have doubled for retailers in the 40s along Fifth, Winick broker says

A six-floor space on prime real estate on Fifth Avenue is looking for a deep-pocketed retailer, The Real Deal has learned. More than 11,000 square feet of space is immediately available for lease at 554 Fifth Avenue, between 45th and 46th streets, asking $1,000 a square foot, said Joseph Isa of Winick Realty.

Isa is marketing the space in a co-exclusive with Dan Dermer of New York-based property manager Dermer Real Estate, he said.

The only current tenant is a deli, and “the market has changed drastically since they leased the space,” Isa said. The new tenant, he expects, will come from one of the “big four” upmarket retail end-users: apparel, footwear, cosmetics or jewelry.

Due to the current certificate of occupancy, any potential tenant would need to use the top three floors of the six story structure as an office, Isa said. The bottom two floors offer 3,660 square feet of retail fronting on the tony strip.

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While Fifth Avenue in the 50s has long been some of the priciest retail real estate in the world, the 40s are beginning to catch up. Isa said the ask along Fifth in the 40s was “probably [$500] just three or four years ago.”

A recent boon for the increasingly pricey stretch was British retailer Top Shop’s sublease of the Lacoste space at 618 Fifth Avenue, he said.

“That was a game changer for this side of the street.”