The San Diego-based luxury home decor chain Pirch is in late-stage negotiations to take more than 30,000 square feet at General Growth Properties’ 200 Lafayette Street in Soho, several industry sources said. If the deal closes, Pirch will have its first store on the East Coast and GGP will have a tenant to replace space that J.C. Penney once planned to occupy.
Pirch, which changed its name from Fixtures Living last year, is close to finalizing a lease for 30,782 square feet at the property. CoStar Group data shows that the space breaks down to 11,674 square feet on the ground floor, 7,846 on the lower level and 11,262 on the second floor.
The asking rent was approximately $400 per square foot on the ground floor, and about $5 million overall in annual rent, a source close to the deal said. The space was listed on CoStar about nine months ago.
The deal has been in the works for months, and is expected to close within the next several weeks, people with knowledge of the transaction said. GGP purchased 200 Lafayette in October 2013 for $148.75 million from a joint venture of the Kushner Companies and CIM Group.
But in a surprise move, J.C. Penney, which had leased the entire building, returned the top office floor and the retail to GGP. Since then, GGP has leased up the top floor, and has the deal for Pirch, company CEO Sandeep Mathrani said in an earnings call in July.
With the office space all spoken for, the retail-focused GGP is looking to sell the upper floors of the buildings, Mathrani said on the call.
“Now that the office space is fully leased, we may sell just the office portion of the asset,” Mathrani said.
CBRE’s Andrew Goldberg, Eric Gelber and Lon Rubackin are representing GGP. Colliers International’s Patrick Breslin is representing Pirch. CBRE and Breslin declined to comment, while Pirch didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pirch has five locations in California, Texas and Illinois. The firm has a seventh store in Atlanta set to open in December, according to the firm’s website.