Vans is heading to Williamsburg.
The shoe retailer signed a 10-year lease for its first store in the neighborhood, on the prime retail strip along North 6th Street, sources told The Real Deal.
Vans is set to take over the former American Apparel space at RedSky Capital’s 104 North 6th Street, between Wythe and Berry streets.
American Apparel used to occupy the space, but recently shut down the store after filing for bankruptcy late last year. The space at the two-story building offers about 3,000 square feet on the ground floor and 20-foot ceilings, marketing materials show. Vans is set to move in this quarter, sources said.
Jason Richter of retail real estate brokerage Hudson was marketing 14 of American Apparel’s leases in the New York metro area after an auction in January ended with no takers for the real estate.
“That was one of the more valuable [leases] and the landlord worked out an early termination in order to control the space,” Richter said.
RedSky, led by Benjamin Bernstein and Benjamin Stokes, acquired a cluster of buildings at 92-108 North 6th Street for $49 million in 2013. The firm secured $139 million in October to refinance a total of 12 properties along Bedford Avenue and North 6th Street from KKR.
Other retailers on the block include Urban Outfitters, Thai restaurant SEA and perfume spot Le Labo.
Crown Retail Services’ Hank O’Donnell and Christopher DeCrosta represented Vans, and Lee & Associates’ Garry Steinberg, Peter Levitan and Peter Braus represented RedSky. They declined to comment. RedSky’s brokers are also marketing the retail spaces at 108-112 North 6th Street.
Asking rents on the four-block stretch of North 6th Street between Driggs and Kent avenues average $259 per square foot, according to a Real Estate Board of New York retail report.
There is a Vans DQM store at 93 Grand Street in Soho, but no regular Vans stores in Manhattan. The only two in the city are at Queens Center in Elmhurst And Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn’s Mill Basin neighborhood. The company has a House of Vans event space in Greenpoint, at 25 Franklin Street.