Luxury Block is Back

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A., the Paris-based producer and retailer of luxury goods, has acquired a New York real estate portfolio on 57th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, and is helping burnish the street as, once again, a prime destination for high-end shopping.

The company, which already owns its distinctive 24-story flagship and headquarters building at 19 E. 57th Street, has obtained a net lease for 50 years on the adjacent 16-story building at 598 Madison Ave., on the northwest corner of Madison and 57th. And it has purchased the building on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street that was most recently the home of the Warner Bros. Studio Store. LVMH is planning to install one of its own brands, Louis Vuitton, at the location. The store will occupy five or six floors of retail space, with offices on the upper floors.

The Louis Vuitton store will join the Christian Dior store that occupies the retail space in the company's headquarters building, designed by architect Christian de Portzamparc.

The retail space in the adjacent 598 Madison Ave. address will be occupied by Montblanc, a producer of expensive pens and other items. (Montblanc is a subsidiary of another French luxury products company, the Richemont Group, whose holdings also include Cartier and Dunhill.)

The north side of the block is also featuring the expansion of Burberrys and the opening of a Jil Sander store. Gone from the block are such 1990s entrants as Warner Bros. and Levi's. Now Swatch is the only moderately priced retailer left on the block, and there is speculation that the purveyor of watches will abandon its 57th Street location once its new Times Square unit is up and running.

The return of high-end retailing has also produced high-end rents, even by Manhattan standards. “We were asking $1000 a square foot for ground floor space and got close to that,” said Mark Boisi, chairman of Colliers ABR, the brokerage company that is the managing and leasing agent for all three LVMH properties. “The mezzanine was $250 a square foot,” he added, saying that the final price for that space was also close to the asking price. He said LVMH wanted tenants with a luxury image, the ability to pay good rental rates and a solid credit standing, which, according to Boisi, the Montblanc-Richemont lease satisfied.