Urban Outfitters renews 30K sf space in Noho

Urban Outfitters is staying put in Noho, tacking on another 10 years to its time at 628 Broadway, where it’s been located for about 25 years.

The firm renewed its 30,000 feet, with about 10,000 square feet each on the first, second and third floors at the building, located between Houston and Bleecker streets. The lease was signed earlier this month, just as the company was reporting record earnings to Wall Street.

The renewal in Noho underscores the conflicting currents in the Manhattan retail market. In Soho, a few blocks south of 628 Broadway, asking rents hit $1,000 per foot. But with a combination of high pricing, a large amount of product on the market and reduced demand, activity has been slow, brokers said. Some expect the rents won’t budge much. Instead, it will just take longer to absorb the space.

But rents have not come down enough to entice Urban Outfitters to make a move, insiders said. After taking a look at Soho, on the other side of Houston, it decided to stay put.

The firm is paying about $4 million per year, or about $250 per square foot on the ground floor, several sources said. Urban Outfitters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The rent 25 years ago was about $25 per foot. At the time the firm was leasing only the ground-floor space, paying a total of about $250,000 per year, a source close to the deal said.

A representative for the building’s owner, 628 Broadway LLC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Jeffrey Roseman represented the landlord in the renewal deal, as well as in the initial deal that brought the retailer to the building.

The high rents are in part helping to develop the stretch of Broadway north of Houston, as retailers seek more affordable space, Roseman said.

“The corridor is stretching north,” he said.

A representative for the brokerage McDevitt Company, which represented the tenant, declined to comment.