Upscale Chinese fashion designer Wang Tao is opening her first U.S. location at 19 Howard Street in Soho, The Real Deal has learned.
A holding company, Ribo International Commerce LLC, bought the two-story, 4,500-square-foot building for $9.6 million from Silvershore Properties. Silvershore’s Jason Silverstein said Wang’s fashion company, “Taoray Wang,” will occupy the building.
Wang did not respond to a request for comment. It wasn’t immediately clear how exactly Wang and Ribo, which was formed in April under the name of a certain Weidong Wang, are affiliated. But the connections are apparent: Ribo is the name of Wang’s most recent employer, Ribo Fashion Group.
Wang launched her company in September 2014 and recently debuted her spring collection at the New York Fashion Week. The company’s website claims that it will open stores in major cities such as London, New York and Tokyo within the next three to five years.
“We knew that the target was to look for an end user,” Silverstein said. “The opportunity to occupy a building as a single tenant is obviously an exclusive thing for any kind of company.” Silvershore, which was founded in 2008 by former Marcus & Millichap brokers Jason Silverstein and David Shorenstein, made a hefty profit on the deal: it had scooped up the property for a mere $4.95 million in August 2014.