Tommy Hilfiger’s move to 285 Madison Ave. this fall is a case study in why a major company decides to leave another building where it’s been happy for more than a dozen years.
As first reported Monday on nypost.com, Hilfiger — a division of global apparel giant PVH Corp. — signed a lease for 200,000 square feet at Aby Rosen’s 285 Madison Ave. at East 40th Street, where it will have all of seven floors and parts of two others.
It will move from RXR Realty’s Starrett-Lehigh Building on far West 26th Street, where it’s been since 2004.
It isn’t about rent — the “ask” at 285 Madison was in the $70s per square foot over the floors it’s taking, compared with typical “asks” of the upper $60s to low $70s at Starrett-Lehigh.
But according to Matthew Astrachan, part of a JLL team that repped PVH, the new digs are a better fit for high-end apparel-maker Hilfiger for at least three reasons.
Although Hilfiger had 280,000 square feet at mammoth Starrett-Lehigh, greater efficiencies at its new Midtown home will make it easier for the company “to create a workplace of the future,” Astrachan said.
That means a custom-designed, more collaborative work space for Hilfiger’s creative and corporate staff, as well as “very attractive shared amenities” including a rooftop lounge, gym facility and bicycle room.
The new offices will let Hilfiger “have more modern showrooms and a mock store,” Astrachan said.
Another advantage: The move puts Tommy Hilfiger within “true walking distance” of PVH’s headquarters at 200 Madison Ave., its Calvin Klein division at 205 W. 39th St. and more PVH offices at 501 Seventh Ave.
From employees’ point of view, it also means easy walking distance to Grand Central Terminal, East Side subway lines and Midtown shopping and dining —whereas Starrett-Lehigh is located way westward, between 11th and 12th avenues.
After Rosen’s RFR Realty bought then-vacant 285 Madison with partners in 2012, it launched a capital improvement program — part of a total $150 million it spent to modernize 285 Madison and two other prewar properties. (Rosen has since bought out the partners and is the sole owner of 285 Madison.)
The building, once home to Young & Rubicam, is now more than 90 percent leased to a diverse array of tenants including GE Corporate and literary agency Janklow & Nesbit.
In a statement, PVH Chief Operating and Financial Officer Michael Shaffer credited JLL for landing a new home that “will allow for the continued growth of Tommy Hilfiger.”
Astrachan’s JLL team for PVH included Mitchell Konsker, Joseph Messina and Steven Bauer. Landlord Rosen was repped by JLL’s Alexander Chudnoff, Dan Turkewitz and Diana Biasotti and by RFR’s leasing director, AJ Camhi, in-house.
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