J. Crew’s Madewell Opening Brookfield Place Outpost

Women’s clothing store Madewell will join sister brand J. Crew at Brookfield Place, Commercial Observer has learned.

Madewell signed a 10-year lease for 2,823 square feet on the first floor of Brookfield Property Partners’ 200 Vesey Street, according to a spokeswoman for the landlord. The spokeswoman would not say the asking rent for the deal, but CoStar Group lists average asking rents for the building between $55 to $75 per square foot.

Steve Merkle of Open Realty Advisors represented Madewell in the deal while Brookfield handled it with an in-house team of Michael Goldban and Mark Kostic. Merkle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Brookfield Place is excited to welcome one of the hottest retailers, Madewell, to its offerings,” Kostic said in a statement. “We are confident that the addition of Madewell will build upon an already successful J. Crew store.”

Madewell will take the Brookfield Place storefront formerly occupied by Diane von Furstenberg—which shuttered last month—between Michael Kors and Paul Smith for its eighth location in the city, which is scheduled to open in the fall.

It will join a J. Crew retail store (opened in 2015 when the complex first opened) in the Vesey Street complex, as well as the company’s offices. In March, J. Crew leased a 30,000-square-foot space for its corporate headquarters, as CO previously reported.

Madewell started as a workwear company in 1937 by Russian immigrant Julius Kivowitz in New England, but it was shut down in the 1980s, BuzzFeed reported. J. Crew bought the brand and relaunched it as woman’s clothing company in 2006.

While J. Crew has struggled in recent years with slumping sales and layoffs, Madewell has been a bright spot for the company with high sales growth, Fashionista reported. Madewell recently announced it would expand to include menswear.

Source: https://commercialobserver.com/2018/09/j-crews-madewell-opening-brookfield-place-outpost/