Dolce & Gabbana has snagged a distinctive spot on Madison Avenue.
The Italian fashion house signed for the 23,000-square-foot retail property at Tahl Propp Equities’ 695 Madison Avenue, The Real Deal has learned. The lease comes after the space’s first availability in 25 years.
Representatives for Dolce & Gabbana did not return emails seeking comment.
The five-story building sits on the northeast corner of East 62nd Street. Marketing materials show the property has 4,900 square feet on the ground and second floors, 4,200 square feet on the third and fourth floors and a 5,000 square feet on the lower level.
It includes a dramatic interior staircase, skylights and a 700-square-foot terrace wrapping the third floor.
The corner property has more than 60 feet of frontage on both Madison Avenue and 62nd Street.
The Hermes women’s store vacated the property last year for a move across the way, to 706 Madison Avenue.
The annual rent for the entire building at 695 Madison is roughly $12 million a year, according to people familiar with the market.
Matthew Seigel led a Lantern Company team that represented the Propp family ownership. Neither returned requests for comment. Richard Johnson and Charlie Koniver of Odyssey Retail Advisors represented the tenant.
“Madison Avenue continues to display incredible recovery and vacancy rates have gotten so tight there is so little inventory compared to two years ago,” said Buchbinder & Warren’s William Abramson, a broker who was not involved in this transaction.
Dolce & Gabbana has a boutique at 827 Madison on the southeast corner of East 69th Street and a children’s shop across the avenue, at 820 Madison. There’s also an 18,400-square-foot flagship at 717 Fifth Avenue that was leased in 2011 under a 15-year deal.
After renovations, it is unclear if the brand will consolidate in the new digs or keep any of the other stores open.
Elsewhere along the Madison Avenue shopping corridor, Armani is building its new flagship on the northwest corner of East 65th Street; Versace opened at the southeast corner of East 65th Street in space once occupied by Givenchy, which moved to 625 Madison Avenue. Valentino is moving from 761 Madison Avenue to the former Calvin Klein space at 654 Madison Avenue.
Matthew Bauer, president of the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District, said the Italian trade commission has previously produced an event called Italy on Madison Avenue and has supported the retailers along what he called “the Italian Mile.”
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana founded the fashion house in Legnano, Italy, in 1985 and opened its first store in 1986.
The building it now calls home was designed by architects McKim, Mead & White in 1927. It was restored in 1984 by Bleyer Blinder Belle with a two-story rooftop addition and updated in 2000 with the central five-story curvilinear steel staircase and giant skylight.
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