The old Macy’s home in Brooklyn could soon become a showcase for “experiential entertainment retail” for companies like Netflix, Universal and Lego, according to the head of a partnership that just bought the four-story, 440,000-square-foot property at 422 Fulton Street.
Albert Laboz, founder and chief executive of United American Land, said, “Everything is on the table” about the future of the site. UAL and partners Isaac Chera of Crown Acquisitions and the Chehebar family of Jackson Group bought the Macy’s property for an undisclosed price. The sale was first reported on The Real Deal. The transaction closed Thursday, Laboz told The Post.
Macy’s has been in the three-building location since 1995 when it replaced the defunct Abraham & Straus flagship store.
The store is expected to close next year. Parent Macy’s Inc. has been under pressure from investors for underperforming stores, which they say are worth far more than real estate. Earlier this year, it said it would close 150 of Macy’s 520 U.S. locations. Macy’s Inc. also owns Bloomingdales and the Blue Mercury cosmetics chain.
Laboz said he’s taking a two-pronged approach to the Macy’s space — “traditional retail and/or family-friendly entertainment like Netflix, Universal, Lego … when you have 23,000 new apartments with lots of kids within an eight-block radius, there’s a need for family-friendly uses.”
Laboz said he was open to having “two different operators per floor to create synergy between the tenants.”
The Macy’s floors are below four stories taller that it sold to Tishman Speyer in 2015. The developer built a new office building next door called the Wheeler that includes part of the former Macy’s floors and poured $100 million to help modernization of the old store. Laboz called the result, which included restoration of the facades and mechanical systems, “magnificent.”
The city turned a half-mile stretch of Fulton Street — once home to several other major department stores — into a mall decades ago in an effort to halt the neighborhood’s decline.
But the mall, though lively, was dominated by cheaper goods, fast food – and crime.
The nearby MetroTech office complex was designed in the 1980s and 1990s as an inward-facing enclave to separate it from the mall’s low-rent environment. It was recently rebranded as the louder Brooklyn Commons.
In recent years, national chains in the mall like American Eagle Outfitters and Aeropostale and the reopened Gage & Tollner a few blocks away gave the area a new image.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Ian Lerner, who worked on a major grocery retail deal on Fulton Street last year, said the area’s growing fortunes were reflected in first-floor store rents of $250 per square foot — ” at least doubled over the last 20 years”. he said.
Lerner noted the influx of national chains such as Burlington Coat Factory and Five Below and grocers such as Trader Joe’s and Lidl. Like Laboz, he cited “a lot of residential development nearby.” He called the Fulton area “one of the bright spots of New York’s turning point.”
He said, “Laboz and Chera know what they are doing. They are smart people.”
Laboz said, “We have an incredibly blank canvas to create something new and exciting.”
Asked about the future of the Brooklyn store, a Macy’s spokesperson said: “Our new strategy is designed to create a Macy’s, Inc. and improve the customer experience. We intend to close approximately 150 Macy’s stores as we further invest in our 350 retail fleet over the next three years. A final decision on specific locations has not yet been made.”
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Image Source : nypost.com