Asprey Triples Trump Tower Space in 28,000-SF Deal

NEW YORK CITY-Posh UK-based retailer Asprey has finally sealed the deal on its long-awaited Trump Tower expansion. The luxe British specialty shop will more than triple its existing space in a deal that may signal a Fifth Avenue paradigm shift away from the theme stores that shot up along the legendary thoroughfare in the late ’90s.

According to Cresa Partners/New York principal Marcus Rayner, who worked on Asprey’s behalf in arranging 28,000-sf long-term lease, the deal marks one of the largest retail transactions on Fifth Avenue to date. The four-level American flagship on the corner of 56th Street will have a new address, 723 Fifth Ave (its current street number is 737 Fifth Ave). A new façade will encompass the entire corner of the building with 70 feet of avenue frontage rising up 40 feet. No details of the lease have been disclosed. The new space includes the 9,000 sf Asprey currently occupies in the 68-story bronze mirror tower plus an additional 19,000 additional sf.

While Asprey’s space search has been one of the retail sector’s worst kept secrets for more than a year, the word on the street last summer was that Trump Tower would get the nod. “When you’re building a brand you have to be very careful and really test what size space you want and what location you need,” Rayner tells GlobeSt.com. “It took a long time to finish because we were out in the market testing what the locations might be.