Defying speculation that the Ladies Mile shopping corridor is dying out, Burlington Coat Factory is moving to 620 Sixth Avenue, doubling its square footage. This vintage cast-iron building was built in 1896 and is one of the most iconic buildings on the street. West 14th Street and West 23rd Street.
The clothing store signed a contract for just under 80,000 square feet, eating up the remaining roughly 100,000 square feet of retail space left by bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond. The three-story lease will nearly double its presence in the Burlington corridor, leaving it with 40,000 square feet on nearby 695th Street.
The 12-year deal with Burlington marks another brinkmanship for the building's joint venture owners RXR Realty and Hudson Bay Capital, which joined Hudson Bay as a partner in October. At the same time, 620 Six was recapitalized with a $320 million loan.
One-sixth of the 620 units were vacant in 2021 due to the pandemic and tenant bankruptcies. Currently, very little of the 500,000 square feet of office and retail space remains available due to recent transactions, RXR Managing Director Bill Elder said. (The entire building is 700,000 square feet, but real estate services association BJ 32 owns 200,000 square feet as condominium units).
“Essentially, it's all leased except for 8,000 square feet where we're going to have a great store open,” Elder said.
He did not disclose the name of the next tenant.
Burlington's asking rents were $100 per square foot for the center of the building and $175 per square foot for the two corners.
Meanwhile, TJ Maxx and Marshalls have signed five-year retail store renewal agreements for approximately 68,000 square feet and 38,000 square feet, respectively.
The owners also had their hands full sprucing up their offices after WeWork left the huge block.
“We had to reposition the entire building,” Elder said.
It didn't take long. Tech company Palantir signed on for 140,000 square feet, mobile banking app Current signed on for 72,000 square feet, and Cole Haan renewed for 62,000 square feet.
Burlington was represented by Cliff Simon of CNS Real Estate. RXR's internal representatives were Daniel Burney, RIPCO's Richard Skalnik, Lindsey Zegans, Ben Sabin and Mary Schwagel.
The city-designated nine-block-long Ladies Mile Historic District shows no evidence of retail outflow. Huge outposts of Trader Joe's, The Container Store, and Old Navy are joined by Men's Warehouse, Brick Art Supply, Nut Factory, “wellness” restaurant Oasis, and Genius Gems, a play and learning experience built around magnetic tiles. , share blocks with different users.
Most of the vacancies are in small spaces. The space Burlington will leave behind will not be on the market, officials said. Unconfirmed rumors suggest that 695 Sixth's landlord, Cudge Realty, wants to convert the building into apartments.
Meanwhile, big changes are coming two blocks north. The National Museum of Mathematics leased more than 34,000 square feet at 635 Sixth Avenue, corner of West 20th Street. That's nearly double the museum's original space at 11 E. 26th St., and even larger when compared to its current pop-up at 225 Fifth Avenue.
It's unclear how much the museum is paying to rent the new space, but the numbers clearly add up.
The deal combines a direct lease with landlord Spear Street Capital and a sublease from former tenant Lowe's, Commercial Observer reported.
