Newmark Retail's double duty

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 2, 2005

Newmark Retail has recently completed a sublease in SoHo and an HQ expansion in Richardson, Texas, for apparel and watch retailer, Fossil.

The sublease between Fossil and Foot Locker at 541 Broadway in the SoHo District of Manhattan, was arranged to Amira Yunis, Newmark Retail senior managing director Amira Yunis.

According to Yunis, Fossil plans to relocate to a new, yet-to-be determined site as part of its planned Manhattan retail strategy, allowing Foot Locker to sign a seven-year sublease deal for the former Fossil space. The transaction covers a total of 6,800 s/f: 5,300 s/f of ground floor retail space as well as 1,500 s/f in the lower level of the building.

"This was an extremely complex transaction that was originally fully negotiated and nearly executed between the three parties as a direct deal with the landlord (and Foot Locker)," said Yunis, who represented Fossil in the transaction.

"Ultimately, the deal was reworked as a sublease between Fossil and Foot Locker." Mark Finkelstein of Retail Strategies of Long Island, N.Y., represented Foot Locker, which is expected to open its new store at 541 Broadway within the next few weeks. In addition to retail locations in Manhattan's Flatiron District at 103 Fifth Ave. and at 530 Fifth Ave., Fossil also has stores on Queens Blvd. in Elmhurst and at the Woodbury Commons in Central Valley, N.Y.

Newmark also announced that Fossil, Inc. has solved a space crunch at its North Texas headquarters with the purchase of another office building.

The global watchmaker and accessories company bought an existing 131,541 s/f building along with eight adjacent acres of vacant land just about a mile from its existing facility in Richardson, 10 miles north of downtown Dallas.

"It was a logical site because it offers the greatest flexibility for future growth," Rebecca L. Griffin, executive managing director of the Newmark office in Dallas, explained.

Fossil announced earlier this year that it was running out of space at its existing headquarters and hired Newmark to evaluate its real estate options,.

"We looked for a solution that would accommodate the company's long-term growth while minimizing occupancy costs," said Griffin, who worked on the assignment with managing director Mike Myers, associate director Kimberly Jenkins, and associate Wilson Stafford.