Kima Zabete inks 10,000-sf deal at 477 Broome

Fashion designer Kima Zabete is moving two blocks — from Greene Street to Broome Street — to get a little more room for her growing business,  the New York Observer reported.

Zabete has inked a 10,000-square-foot lease at 477 Broome Street after spending a dozen years at 96 Greene Street. Her new digs has 6,000 square feet on the ground floor and a 4,000-square-foot lower level; asking rent was $700,000 a year.

The deal, set for 10 years with a five-year option, was handled by David Barreto of Cast Iron Real Estate and David Baker of Isaacs and Company. Barreto represented landlord JC Dwight; Baker was Zabete’s representative.

The Broome Street location has been vacant since the Broadway Panhandler, a cooking supply story, left six years ago, Barreto said.

“The 477 Broome Street space…had been marketed by another broker during that time,” Barreto told the Observer. “When we took it over we tried a different approach, cleaned it up, added lighting and leased it on short-term basis to several tenants until we finally landed Kirna Zabete.”

Barreto also had offers from “several furniture companies but [Kima Zabete] moved quickly to seal the deal once they saw the space and realized the value and its potential.”

Besides its size, Barreto said, the space has 16-foot ceilings with exposed brick walls,skylights and thick brick arches “making the space hard to duplicate.” [NYO] —Christopher Cameron