UPDATED March 16, 2019, 9:21p.m.: The massive photo portrait of Harry Macklowe and his new wife isn’t the only new thing at 432 Park Avenue.
At a panel at 92Y and Hundred Stories’ third annual City of Tomorrow summit, Cushman & Wakefield’s executive vice chairman Joanne Podell revealed that two more tenants had signed leases at the 130,000-square-foot commercial component of Macklowe’s luxury condominium tower.
New York Post columnist Steve Cuozzo was making a larger point about how disconnected landlords and developers are from the rents retailers are willing to pay with Macklowe’s space being on the market for five years as an example when Podell interrupted.
“Crazily, we leased 432 Park. We never really announced it much,” Podell said. “But everything’s done.”
The tenants that had not yet been announced include hair stylist John Barrett, who is opening a new 6,300-square-foot salon on the “entire” second floor of the property facing West 57th Street, and a perfume company called Amaffi, which is taking about 4,000 square feet, according to Podell.
Though not a known brand, Podell described Amaffi’s store as the kind of place “with extremely extremely — I don’t know who can afford them but they think that people can — perfume bottles for $5,000.” The company website is available in Russian and English and says the retailer has two other boutiques in London and Los Angeles in addition to its new outpost on 57th Street. It has one location open in Moscow.
Phillips’ auction house still holds the biggest lease in the space: 55,000 square feet including the Park Avenue Cube on West 56th Street. (Cushman & Wakefield did not handle Phillips’ lease; the brokerage said Harry Macklowe negotiated it himself.) And luxury Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille signed a lease in 2016 for nearly 5,000 square feet, Commercial Observer reported at the time.
Podell said that with the salon and perfume shop, there is now only 2,600 square feet of retail space available at 40 East 57th Street (the dedicated address for the development’s retail). After the panel, she noted that the leases were done in December. The status of the remaining roughly 57,000 square feet of 432 Park’s commercial component is unclear.
After breaking the news, Podell said that she did agree with Cuozzo’s broader point and elaborated on what it takes to fill storefronts in the current market.
“Forget the asking rates, forget Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE. It’s about who the tenant is and the kind of deal you can put together,” she said. “Whether it’s TI [tenant improvement] and free time, or security and guarantees, or confidence in what you’re doing, it gets done”
The Real Deal previously reported that a CBRE team consisting of Andrew Goldberg, Richard Hodos, Matthew Chmielecki, and Joseph Hudson were handling retail leasing for Macklowe.
Macklowe’s equity stake in 432 Park’s retail and commercial component was valued at $15.7 million equity stake in his recent divorce trial. The developer remarried just over a week ago and erected 42-by-24-foot portrait of himself and his new wife, Patricia Landeau on part of the supertall development’s commercial space.
On getting the deals done at 432 Park specifically, Podell said “it took awhile… rents came down.”
Editor’s Note: Updated in the fifth, seventh and eighth paragraphs to reflect additional information regarding 432 Park Avenue’s retail leases, as provided by Cushman & Wakefield.