Blue-collar clothing maker Carhartt inks new lease in Garment Center building

From top to bottom: Matthew Mandell, Newmark Knight Frank senior portfolio manager and Allen Gurevich, a Newmark director. At right: 209 West 38th Street (Propertyshark)

Carhartt, a manufacturer of rugged work apparel based in Dearborn, Mich., that is popular with both hipsters and construction workers, signed a lease this month in a Garment Center showroom building at 209 West 38th Street.

The apparel firm signed in August for about 7,200 square feet on part of the eighth floor at the 150,000-square-foot building located mid-block between Seventh and Eighth avenues, Steve Carter, a vice president of corporate sales for Carhartt, said (note: correction appended).

The space is primarily for a showroom, but will also include offices, he said.

“We are making more of a presence in the marketplace, and obviously New York is the place to do that,” Carter said. The privately-owned company founded in 1889, which has retail locations in Chicago, Portland and Salt Lake City, and sells to retailers internationally, even hunted for a store location in Brooklyn, but has put that search on hold for now, Carter said.

Carhartt is leaving a 3,800-square-foot space at the Eretz Group’s 485 Seventh Avenue, a 235,000-square-foot building at the corner of 36th Street because it wanted a larger space.

Allen Gurevich, a director at Newmark Knight Frank, represented Carhartt in the move, while Matthew Mandell, a senior portfolio manager at Newmark, represented the landlord, Newmark Holdings. Gurevich declined to comment, and Mandell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The clothing manufacturer which often sells in hardware stores and military supply outlets, is quietly moving upscale, recently launching a line from designer Adam Kimmel at Barneys of New York.  

There are changes as well for Carhartt’s former location. Tarter Stats O’Toole signed on Aug. 1 to become the leasing agent at 485 Seventh Avenue, taking over from Murray Hill Properties, Catherine O’Toole, managing member for the new agency firm said. Murray Hill declined to comment, but still represents two other Eretz Group buildings, both in the Flatiron District, at 155 Fifth Avenue and 101 Fifth Avenue.

Last year Tarter Stats O’Toole won the assignment to lease two other Eretz Group buildings in Midtown, at 252 West 37th Street and 39 West 38th Street, O’Toole said.