Thor signs Qatari designer in first 680 Madison Avenue deal

Qatari apparel retailer Qela has inked a 6,230-square-foot lease at Thor Equities’ 680 Madison Avenue — the brand’s first outpost in the U.S. and Thor’s first deal in the retail property purchased last year.

The Doha-based luxury fashion line nabbed about 3,000 square feet on the building’s ground floor and 3,230 on the second, and will pay more than $2,000 per square foot — one of the city’s highest rental rates for any type of space, Crain’s reported. The shop will open in the fall of 2014.

“They’re creating this luxury brand from the ground up and to do it they need really good real estate,” Richard Hodos, a CBRE Group retail broker who represented the tenant in the deal, told Crain’s. “This space fit the bill — it’s one of the top corners on the best block for luxury retail in the city.”

Thor, led by Joe Sitt, purchased 680 Madison Avenue, between 61st and 62nd streets, from Extell Development in January 2013 for $277 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a retail property on the street at the time. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland