Vornado markets Elizabeth Arden Fifth Avenue space: sources

Entire spa may move somewhere else on the avenue

Vornado Realty Trust is quietly shopping around a small ground-floor space occupied by luxury skin care company Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door Spa at 691 Fifth Avenue, where the company has been located for more than 70 years, several retail sources said.

New Jersey-based Vornado, which has owned the landmarked structure known as the Elizabeth Arden Building since 1998, is asking $3,000 per square foot for the 1,402-square-foot ground-floor location next to clothing retailer Zara, two of the sources said.

Roger Eulau, a senior director at commercial firm Lansco, who represented Uniqlo in one of the most expensive leasing deals ever in Manhattan at 666 Fifth Avenue, believed $3,000 per foot was a new peak. He had not been aware that Vornado was marketing the space.

“It sounds like a record,” he said. “I have not heard anything that high.” Several other brokers also believed it to be a record.

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Elizabeth Arden, which has multiple floors in 691 Fifth Avenue (the building is also known by the address 689 Fifth Avenue, and is at the corner of 54th Street) may move the entire spa to a second-floor location on Fifth Avenue nearby, brokers, who asked not to be identified because they did not want to offend Vornado or the tenant, said.

Sherri White, a senior vice president with Vornado, is the leasing agent for the retail at 689 Fifth Avenue.

Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door Spa Has Been On Fifth Avenue since 1910, and moved into its current building in 1930, three years after it was constructed.

Elizabeth Arden and Vornado did not respond to requests for comment.