Prada buys Fifth Avenue flagship store building in NYC for $425M

The deal reflects the dramatic rise in the fortunes of retail real estate even as the office and residential markets struggle.

It also comes amid  forecasts that online shopping would doom brick-and-mortar stores.

“The board believes that the property’s location offers high strategic value being characterized by increasing scarcity and long-term potential,” Prada said in a statement.

The purchase of 724 Fifth, where Prada has leased five floors in the 12-story building since 1997, follows recent word that Japan’s Geshary coffee brand bought nearby 560 Fifth Ave.

Geshary is expected to launch a multi-floor display of the coffee-making process, similar to one it has in Tokyo, after current tenant Oakley’s lease is up next year.

The world’s most expensive stretch of retailers will also see luxury watchmaker Rolex develop an entirely new headquarters tower at 665 Fifth at East 52nd Street.

Meanwhile, Japanese confectioner Minamoto purchased a former TGI Friday’s building at 604 Fifth Ave., and LVMH has development plans for its Louis Vuitton site at Fifth and East 57th Street.

“The commitment by international brands acknowledges and reinforces that the city and Fifth Avenue have continued to maintain their place as the No. 1 shopping destination and avenue in the world,” Cushman & Wakefield superbroker Joanne Podell said.

Retail specialist Andrew Goldberg, a vice-chairman at CBRE, said the phenomenon of “big brands buying real estate, which we saw a lot of in the 1980s and ‘90s, is coming back.”

Goldberg, who worked on the deal that first brought Prada to 724 Fifth in the 1990s, noted with a chuckle, “When retailers buy a building where they’re tenants, it means they have no intention of leaving.”

Leasing is on fire as well on the avenue’s prime stretch north of East 48th Street. Swarovski is coming to a former Gap site at 680 Fifth and Marc Jacobs is in talks for 645 Fifth, where an Armani A/X lease expires in 2024.

Last month, Cushman & Wakefield reaffirmed its No. 1 global ranking for Fifth Avenue as the world’s most expensive retail destination in real estate terms, with rents of $2,000 per square foot.

The Fifth Avenue phenomenon is matched on Madison Avenue north of East 57th Street, where Valentino took over the huge former Calvin Klein store and Giorgio Armani will soon open e a spectacular new flagship boutique.

New leases for Van Cleef & Arpels, Dolce & Gabbana, Peter Millar and others have left few available spaces, according to Garrick-Aug’s Joseph Aquino.The trend is also mirrored in Soho, where there are now nearly as many marquee brands as uptown. But some middle-market corridors, such as Midtown Third Avenue and Broadway on the Upper West Side, continue to struggle.