Trump Org has big retail vacancy looming

Wharton, SL Green won’t renew lease at 6 E. 57th St. as Tiffany & Co. sets to depart

Eric Trump and 6 East 57th Street (Getty, Google Maps)
Eric Trump and 6 East 57th Street (Getty, Google Maps)

The Trump Organization is looking at filling a large retail vacancy near its namesake Fifth Avenue tower at a time when empty storefronts are abundant across Manhattan.

The space at 6 East 57th Street is currently controlled by Wharton Properties and SL Green Realty, which took over the lease in 2016 when the two investors struck a deal to relocate Nike from the location to a new flagship at 650 Fifth Avenue.

The East 57th Street lease expires next year, and Wharton and SL Green will not be extending the deal, Bloomberg reported. That leaves the Trump Organization with the difficult task of finding a tenant for the 74,000-square-foot space.

Trump Organization executive vice president Eric Trump declined to comment to Bloomberg, as did representatives for Wharton and SL Green.

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The 6 East 57th Street location, which the Trump Org controls under a long-term ground lease, is currently occupied by Tiffany & Co., which is planning on moving out by the middle of next year when it’s done renovating its store on Fifth Avenue.

Ruth Colp-Haber, president of the brokerage Wharton Property Advisors (no relation to Wharton Properties), said it’s a difficult time to lease any retail or office space in New York, and on top of that some tenants don’t want to do deals in Trump buildings.

The 57th Street property, she said, is “a Triple-A location. The building itself, the spaces are really nice, it’s a lot of glass and steel, it’s extremely nice spaces. But for some users there’s definitely a stigma.” [Bloomberg] — Rich Bockmann