KPG Funds Brings Los Angeles Apparel to Soho

Soho is thousands of miles away from the City of Angels, but it will soon be home to an apparel company based on the other side of the country.

KPG Funds signed Los Angeles Apparel to a 25,000-square-foot lease at 480 Broadway, the New York Post reported. The clothing company will be making its first New York inroads with its store between Broome and Grand streets.

Los Angeles Apparel — the latest brand from American Apparel founder Dov Charney — will be moving into space formerly occupied by TopShop. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This lease reflects everything we believe in – supporting mission-driven brands that contribute to the cultural and economic fabric of our cities,” KPG co-founder Greg Kraut told the Post.

The layout of the 100,000-square-foot building allows for the possibility of sizable leases. One of the city’s biggest leases three years ago, for instance, saw the Museum of Women take 25,400 square feet at 480 Broadway.

KPG and LaSalle Global Partner Solutions closed on their acquisition of the property early in 2022, planning to reposition the building as a boutique luxury office building.

Charney founded the once-beloved fashion brand American Apparel but was fired by its board in 2014 for “alleged misconduct and violations of company policy.” He launched Los Angeles Apparel in 2016. As of 2022, the South-Central Los Angeles-based brand employs more than 1,500 people.

Elsewhere on the Soho retail front, Ralph Lauren recently purchased 109 Prince Street in the Manhattan neighborhood — where it already has a storefront — for $132 million. The seller of the retail condominium was Swiss investor and art financier Jean-Pierre Lehmann.

Ralph Lauren fended off a challenge for the Prince Street location from the French conglomerate LVMH.

Soho was Manhattan’s second-most active market in terms of retail leases in the first quarter, according to CBRE. There were 11 deals in the neighborhood totaling more than 46,000 square feet, led by Adidas’ relocation to 8,700 square feet at 135 Spring Street.

— Holden Walter-Warner