Meatpacking pioneer departs for Upper East Side

Fashion retail real estate trends appear to be shifting nearly as fast as the fashion industry itself. Yigal Azrouel, a fashion designer who was among the pioneers of the Meatpacking District, is the latest downtown stalwart moving to the Madison Avenue strip on the Upper East Side that has long been considered stuffy, Crain’s reported.

Azrouel signed a seven-year lease for 900 square feet at S&S Madison Associates’ 1011 Madison Avenue, on the corner of East 78th Street. The asking rent for the deal was $640 per foot, and Azrouel also gets a 900-square-foot storage basement in the transaction.

Azrouel’s deal follows RFR Holding’s recent coup of three downtown fashion tenants for its 980 Madison Avenue retail space. Kelly Gedinsky and Lori Shabtai, the Winick Realty Group brokers that represented Azrouel in the deal, said the upper Madison Avenue strip has become “much more fashion-oriented.”

At the same time, Crain’s noted that the Meatpacking District, and its surging rents, is luring more chain fashion tenants, including Levi’s, rather than edgy boutiques. [Crain’s]