LVMH files to demolish 743 Fifth, in footprint of retailer’s planned Plaza District tower

The French luxury retail giant LVMH, which owns brands such as Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton and Loewe, filed plans March 13, 2024, to demolish the one-story retail store now home to the holding company’s watch brand Hublot, city records show.

This was expected as part of a plan to create a new flagship store at the adjacent parcel at 1 East 57th Street, at the corner of Fifth Avenue, as the New York Post reported in April 2023. That building is occupied by Louis Vuitton.

Plans for a new building have not yet been filed with the city’s Department of Buildings. Despite the building being just one story, it has a design over the facade rising about 85 feet, making it appear a much taller building.

This redevelopment continues a flurry of investment activity at or near the corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. Jeff Sutton sold two buildings to Prada for a combined $835 million and also sold retail condominium space to another French luxury holding company, Kering, for $963 million, at 717 Fifth Avenue. In addition, Tiffany & Co. moved back into its flagship at 727 Fifth Avenue and LVMH signed a seven-year lease with the Trump Organization at 6 East 57th Street, where it can relocate Louis Vuitton while 1 East 57th Street is redeveloped, according to the Post.

The property

The retail building in Midtown East has 1,593 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 19 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 1,957 square feet. The zoning is C5-3 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.8 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The 1,593-square-foot property generated revenue of $410,817 or $258 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

Franklin Dickinson of Lvmh Moet Hennessy Luis Vuitton submitted a new building construction project for a 1,593 square-foot mercantile (M) building at 743 5th Avenue. The plan was filed on July 3, 2014 and was permitted on December 22, 2015. It calls for the construction of an 85-foot tall, one-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number 121186224. The project is described in the filing as: new 1 story commercial building as indicated on plans filed herewith.

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on March 1, 2016.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Midtown East, The majority, or 81 percent of the 62.6 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown East has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 14.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 24 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 743 5th Avenue, PincusCo identified 18 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 18 items, 16 were sales above $5 million totaling $901.4 million. The most recent of the 16 was Fifth Avenue Yang Park LLC which bought one residential condo unit in the 109-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 730 5th Avenue for $61.6 million from 730 Fifth Upper, LLC on February 5, 2024. Of those 18 items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $526.5 million. The most recent of the two was Solil Management in which borrowed $18 million from State Farm Realty Mortgage secured by the 76,656-square-foot, 88-unit office building (O6) on 592 Madison Avenue on June 6, 2023.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.