TSE luxury knit retailer signs landmark deal for Soho store

Real Estate Weekly,  Oct 17, 2007  

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TSE, maker of fine cashmere and luxury knits, has signed a 10-year lease with a five year renewal option for a 2100 s/f retail store at 120 Wooster Street in Soho, according to Gerald H. Morganstem of the law firm Hoiheimer Gartlir & Gross who negotiated the transaction on behalf of building owner, 120 Wooster LLC.

Daniel Lewis of Epstein Becker & Green served as attorney for TSE. Laura Pomerantz and Betty Ende of PBS Realty Advisors were the tenant brokers.

Construction on the new Soho TSE store is expected to begin in September with official opening due in February, 2008. The new location replaces the former TSE store at 827 Madison Avenue which was open between 1994 and 2006. TSE operates its headquarters office and showroom space at 450 West 15th Street to which retail customers are currently referred.

Asking rent for the Soho space is approximately $500,000 annually or about $238 a square foot, said Morganstem. TSE will also have possession of the basement which is not included in the square footage. Styles by Annick DeLorme, a French antiques dealer, the previous tenant in the TSE space, had been in the basement temporarily until the landlord was able to find them space in the same building.

The signing of the lease was contingent on the relocation of the antiques dealer, Morganstem said.

Landmark regulations on signage and interior alterations were another issue that had to be resolved, said Morganstem. The Soho store concept is being designed by the architecture firm Janson Goldstein and will be a complete departure from the former Madison Avenue location, according to Alyson Day TSE's vice president of marketing.

The new TSE store will open with the spring collections of the women's, men's and tsesay lines, the fall launch of TSE handbags, and new spring small leather goods.

"We are very excited to have a retail space in New York that will house all of our collections under one roof," Day said. Founded in 1989, TSE is headquartered in New York with stores and retail channels around the world.

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