The new Printemps fashion store, which opened at Harry Macklowe’s One Wall Street on Friday, “might well be the most beautiful store in New York,” said Downtown Alliance president Jessica Lappin.
“Macklowe could not have done it better,” agreed Cushman & Wakefield retail power-broker Joanne Podell, who repped Chinese lifestyle chain Miniso at nearby 150 Broadway.
“It will draw the right foot traffic and other [retailers] will want to be near them,” she said.
But will the 55,000 square-foot emporium with five restaurants lift more boats in the area’s roiling retail waters?
RIPCO Real Estate principal Andrew Mandell, who’s marketing a 7,000 square-foot former bank storefront across the street at 71 Broadway, said, “I think it’s early to determine, but it’s already helped our leasing effort. We’re in active negotiations.”
While the World Trade Center and Brookfield Place shopping complexes are near fully-leased, it’s a different story elsewhere. Broadway south of Chambers Street has many large vacancies. So do Fulton, Nassau, Pine and other streets that have mostly small buildings suited mainly to fast food and discounters.
Even Wall Street has many “For Lease” signs despite the prestigious presence of Tiffany.
CBRE vice president Jordan Kaplan said Broadway “was adversely affected by the influx of major retail projects at Brookfield Place, the Oculus and the Seaport,” which drew the most desirable stores.
But he said Printemps and Brooks Brothers, the latter coming soon to 195 Broadway, “have already brought the focus and attention back to Broadway. “I’m very bullish long-term on many retailers continuing this trend.”
Retail brokers were optimistic about a Printemps spillover effect. Most upbeat was JLL’s managing director for New York retail, Corey Zolcinski, who said, “We don’t think it will be long before more big names and emerging concepts follow Printemps to the neighborhood.”
He said that although “retailers were hesitant post-COVID to commit to space in FiDi, that’s changing quickly. The streetscape is coming back to life with Sephora, Whole Foods, Miniso and soon Brooks Brothers.”
CBRE said asking rents on Broadway south of Chambers Street in the fourth quarter of 2024 ticked up 2.4 percent to $236 per square foot over the same period in 2023. But some brokers scoffed, saying asking rents often don’t mean much.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Steve Soutenijk didn’t blame landlords for the vacancies. “I don’t think they have unreasonable rent expectations,” he said. “They’re totally willing to meet the market where it is.”
He said FiDi’s retail rebound since the pandemic “has lagged the rest of the city mostly because its office population has been the slowest to return.”
Newmark’s Jeffrey Roseman, who helped 28 Liberty Street owner Fosun Hive Holdings lease all of its retail space including Alamo Drafthouse cinemas, said Printemps could be “a bit of an anchor” for other high-end retailers if it gets off to a strong start.
“It’s a fashion anchor for downtown as opposed to another food hall or so-called experiential use,” Roseman added.
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