Retail afoot in Lincoln Center area

Half of an Upper West Side retail space formerly occupied by a Reebok Concept store and its Rockport shoe brand is slated to become the site of a footwear, accessories and home products store.

On behalf of owner and developer Millennium Partners, Gene Spiegelman, executive director of retail services at the brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, is in negotiations with the national footwear company to open its second store in the United States at 160 Columbus Avenue between 67th and 68th streets.

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“We want to just extend the retail streetscape with better specialty retail concepts,” Spiegelman said.

Spiegelman would not say who the tenant was because the deal is not expected close until the end of the month. He squelched rumors that boutique clothing chain Scoop was going to take the space, vacated by Reebok and Rockport at the end of last year.
 
The store, which is set to open by Christmas, will occupy 6,618 square feet, or about half of the space available for lease. The rent will be in the range of $300 per square foot for the ground floor space (the store is taking 4,030 square feet of the available 11,748-square-foot ground floor), Spiegelman said.
 
Apparel companies have been considering leasing the rest of the space, he said.
 
“We’re really interested in a dry use and we also want to build this specialty retail attraction [for] the Lincoln Square marketplace,” Spiegelman said.
 
Millennium Partners, developers of mixed-use properties, has built plenty of real estate in the area, including condo buildings with retail tenants spanning from 66th to 68th streets and Columbus Avenue to Broadway. Some of the retailers there include AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 with IMAX, Barnes & Noble, Banana Republic, the Gap, Gracious Home and Pottery Barn.
 
Electronics retailer Circuit City is slated to open a store in the next month in 30,000 square feet of the 47,000-square-foot space that housed Tower Records at 1961 Broadway, at 66th Street, Spiegelman said. Circuit City took the second floor and part of the ground floor at the Millennium property. Cushman is negotiating a lease for the rest of the space, but Spiegelman said he could not discuss it.
 
Apple is building a store at 1981 Broadway at the corner of 67th Street, where Victoria’s Secret used to be, Spiegelman said.
 
More retail is on the way in the neighborhood, with West Elm expected to set up a home store in a portion of the retail space at 15 Central Park West, which is already home to a Best Buy electronics store. West Elm is in negotiations for 3,000 square feet on the ground floor and 21,000 square feet on the second floor. Rents run over $300 a foot on the ground floor and over $75 on the second floor.
 
Best Buy occupies 46,000 square feet on the trophy tower’s ground floor and 3,800 square feet below grade. Rents in the basement are about $70 a foot. Two thousand square feet remain at the site.