Retail rents in Soho are continuing their downward trajectory, but that hasn’t put a total freeze on the neighborhood’s property-sales market.
The latest Soho property to come up for sale is the home of the Victoria’s Secret store, which is looking to fetch north of $90 million, sources told The Real Deal.
The longtime owners of the connected buildings at 591-593 Broadway, the Hauser family, have owned the buildings just south of Houston Street since 1980, property records show.
The Hausers are looking to sell now for estate-planning purposes, one source familiar with the property told TRD.
The sellers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Hausers tapped Eric Anton at Marcus & Millichap to market the property. Anton declined to comment.
The pair of matching white-marble buildings date back to 1860, and span a combined 90,000 square feet. Victoria’s Secret occupies the retail space at the base of both buildings, and has 4 years remaining on its lease. The tenant, however, is paying around $700 per square foot and is unlikely to renew when its lease expires, according to one source familiar with the property.
Bobby Cayre’s Aurora Capital Associates operates the property under a lease with the Hausers that runs through 2029 with an option for a 5-year renewal, according to property records. Aurora also has a right of first refusal that gives the company a first crack at purchasing the property. A representative for Aurora declined to comment.
The listing hits the market following a spate of sales activity in the neighborhood, even as retail rents continue to take a hit.
Jeff Sutton and Joe Sitt recently went into contract to sell the nearby 530 Broadway to Michael Shvo and his partners for $400 million. And Acadia Realty Trust last month inked a 99-year lease to take control of the home of Victoria’s Secret Pink at 565 Broadway for $28 million.
Acadia, the Rye, N.Y.-based real estate investment trust, has been an active buyer of Soho retail as of late. In October the company announced it had closed on $25 million of $122 million worth of acquisitions it planned to make in the neighborhood.
All this comes despite the fact that retail asking rents on Broadway in Soho dipped roughly 14 percent over the past year to $486 per square foot in the third quarter of 2019, according to CBRE. Asking rents on Broadway are about half of what they were at the peak of the market in 2015.