Handbag company Delvaux sets up shop at the Sherry-Netherland

Upper East Siders, it’s time to loosen the purse strings. Delvaux, a luxury Belgian handbag retailer, is taking a space at the Sherry-Netherland hotel for its first U.S. store, sources told The Real Deal.

Delvaux signed a lease to take 2,200 square feet at the base of the building at 781 Fifth Avenue, sources said. A spokesperson for the Sherry-Netherland confirmed the deal.

The Belgian company is said to be paying north of $4 million in annual rent, according to sources, but the asking rent per square foot was not immediately clear.

“We are pleased that Delvaux, the oldest fine leather goods house in the world since 1829, has decided to make our 59th Street and Fifth Avenue location their first U.S. home. Our corner of NYC is synonymous with luxury and we look forward to welcoming them to family,” said Michael Ullman, chief operating officer at the Sherry-Netherland.

The Sherry-Netherland co-op owns the retail component at the property. For nearly a year, it has been looking for tenants to fill more than 7,500 square feet of ground floor and mezzanine retail space, including spaces once occupied by Italian fashion boutique Domenico Vacca and the antique jeweler A La Vielle Russie. The latter space is becoming available for the first time in 35 years.

The other retailer in place, upscale restaurant Harry Cipriani, has occupied its space since 1985 and is one of the most popular venues for the real estate industry power lunch.

The Sherry-Netherland, which contains 169 residential units, has not been spared from the decline plaguing luxury co-ops in the city. A full-floor co-op had $3 million cut from its $32 million asking price in July.

Delvaux, founded in 1829, has 32 stores worldwide, including several in Belgium and in China. Their goods are also distributed in the U.S. at Barneys stores, but there has never been a brick-and-mortar location there.

An RKF team led by Robert Cohen, Pierce Thompson and Jackie Totolo represented the landlord, and Lansco Corporation’s Susan Teplitz and Diane Mandel represented the tenant.

The owners of the retail are “more concerned about the quality of the tenant than setting any sort of record rent,” Cohen said last year.

Representatives for Lansco declined to comment, and Delvaux and RKF did not respond to a request for comment.

The property sits next door to Capstone Equities’ 5 East 59th Street, where a 5,000-square-foot retail space formerly occupied by a Snapchat pop-up known as Spectacles is on the market for lease. Winick Realty Group is marketing that space.

Despite widespread vacancies on the Upper East Side, the retail corridor stretching from East 57th Street to East 59th Street has seen a string of activity in the past couple years. Bulgari set a New York City retail record in 2015 with its lease at the Crown Building at a rent of over $5,000 per square foot. Last year, Under Armour signed for the 53,000-square-foot FAO Schwarz space at the GM Building after battling with Nike for it.

(To view more Upper East Side retail leases, click here)