Alexander Wang is venturing into territory long reserved for financial-services tenants in its search for a new office, with the fashion house reportedly weighing a move to 115 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.
The company is in talks to take 75,000 square feet at the 430,000-square-foot, neo-Gothic building – including the 21-story building’s penthouse floor. Asking rents at the property, owned by Capital Properties, are north of $60 per square foot.
Alexander Wang would move from its currently space in Tribeca, where it occupies most of a 45,000-square-foot office building at 386 Broadway, according to Crain’s. It is unclear whether the company would keep that space, where its lease expires in 2020, if it seals a deal at 115 Broadway.
Fashion industry tenants are increasingly eyeing Downtown, with a recent Newmark Grubb Knight Frank report noting there has been 850,000 square feet of space in the area occupied by fashion tenants since publishing giant Conde Nast signed up at 1 World Trade Center in 2011.
Gucci recently took more than 80,000 square feet at 195 Broadway, while Hugo Boss announced it will relocate its city headquarters from Chelsea to 74,000 square feet at 55 Water Street.
Downtown rents do a financial advantage over other office markets in the city, with average asking rents of $56.65 per square foot almost 30 percent below the Midtown average of $80.21 per square foot and nearly 10 percent below Midtown South’s $62.02 per square foot average, according to NGKF. [Crain’s] – Rey Mashayekhi