Women’s luxury apparel brand Lafayette 148 New York is trading its Soho digs for 68,000 square feet at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The clothing company signed a 15-year lease at the Navy Yard’s Building 77, a 1 million-square-foot building that’s undergoing a $185 million transformation from windowless slab to modern office space, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Lafayette 148’s current space is spread over seven floors, but in Brooklyn those operations will be consolidated on a single floor. “That is hugely efficient,” said Deidre Quinn, co-founder and CEO. “And there is room to grow.”
She said the company would relocate its design, sales, marketing, merchandising, retail and e-commerce teams to Brooklyn. JLL represented the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. on the deal.
Lafayette 148, which has 1,700 employees, will bring 200 jobs to Brooklyn. The firm will keep a retail location at 148 Lafayette Street.
Tech incubator 1776 leased 30,000 square feet at the top of Building 77, which will also feature a Russ & Daughters-anchored Food Court. The Brooklyn Brewery recently backed out of plans to occupy 75,000 square feet at the building. [WSJ, 1st item] — E.B. Solomont