Swarovski is ready to shine bright like a diamond at a new flagship store on Fifth Avenue.
The crystal designer signed a lease for a two-level flagship location at 680 Fifth Avenue, Women’s Wear Daily reported. The lease encompasses 14,000 square feet and includes more than 150 feet of double-height wraparound exposure and frontage.
The latest store is only a few doors down from a former location for the company at 696 Fifth Avenue. Fans of the crystals will have to wait a little longer to get their shopping on, as WWD reported the new store isn’t slated to open until November 2023.
Swarovski has seven other locations in the city and 200 stores across the United States. This store will be the latest to include the “Wonderlab” retail concept the company has been pushing in recent years.
Terms of the lease were not reported. According to the Commercial Observer, Laura Pomerantz and Steven Soutendijk of Cushman & Wakefield represented landlord Josef Buchman in the lease agreement.
“Swarovski is going to be the anchor of the redevelopment at 680 that will improve the long-term viability of the office building well into the future,” said Roy Bajtel, principal at Valor Capital Partners, Buchman’s asset manager. WWD reported changes coming to the building include a relocated office lobby, new facade and new storefront.
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Buchman’s building was previously the site of a Gap store. The company announced in 2018 it would shutter hundreds of underperforming stores, ultimately leading to the closing of the store at 680 Fifth Avenue in 2019. The Gap had been in the building since 1997.
In June 2018, Japanese jewelry brand Mikimoto renewed its 25,000-square-foot lease in the building, where it moved to in 2000 when it subleased space from the Gap. In renewing its lease, Mikimoto agreed to move from the building’s fourth floor to the fifth.
Swarovski is in the midst of a leadership change, according to WWD, after founder Daniel Swarovski’s great-great granddaughter Nadja Swarovski departed from the business.
[WWD] — Holden Walter-Warner