A group of global tenants have already made proposals to take over all or portions of the Ralph Lauren store at 711 Fifth Ave.
Ralph Lauren’s decision earlier this year to vacate its flagship Polo store sent shock waves through the market. But in this town, great space in a prime location is never left to waste.
“As a result of the RFP [request for proposals], we are speaking to other retailers for the space,” said Gene Spiegelman, vice chairman of retail with Cushman & Wakefield, which is representing the retailer. “We are considering divisions and have logical divisions that Ralph Lauren is permitted to do.”
The fashion company is still operating its celeb-packed adjacent restaurant, the Polo Bar, at One E. 55th St. and would like to keep it going.
That would leave another 29,000 square feet to sublease on several floors fronting Fifth Avenue for another dozen years.
Without the restaurant, the previously reported rent of $25 million per year would drop to $21.5 million or a blended rent of $750 a square foot — a bargain for an area where ground floor rents leaped as high as $4,000 to $6,000 per square foot.
The goal of the ultimate deal or deals, Spiegelman says, would be to mitigate that economic exposure for Ralph Lauren, which announced cost-cutting moves in April that included the shuttering of 50 stores.
Many of the multimillions spent on this build-out could also be recycled for a new user. The space offers an internal staircase wrapped around a glass elevator, freight elevators, a backup generator, two dramatic river stone fireplaces and a petite coffee shop on the second floor overlooking the avenue.
“It’s a grand space,” said Spiegelman. “It has the great hall on the ground floor and amazing exposure.”
But Spiegelman is realistic. “Everything is complex and there is no silver bullet,” he says. “My job is to be creative and be optimistic in the face of a challenging retail environment.”
Luckily, he says, “I don’t think the notion of global branding has evaporated. That’s why it is going to get solved.”
