Retail Ventures, which also owns the Value City and Filene's Basement chains, signed on for 30,000 sf at 4 Union Square South on 14th Street, which is owned by Vornado Realty Trust. The site will also be home to a 90,000-sf Filene's that will also open at the end of October. A Whole Foods market and Forever 21 are both expected to open early next year.

"It's a great fit," says Faith Hope Consolo, vice chairman of Garrick-Aug. "It's a shoe street." She adds that a key advantage is that there are more than 15 schools in the immediate vicinity, creating an ripe audience for the DSW product. Bruce Shepard of Mamaroneck, NY-based EMB Associates represented DSW and Filene's.

The company's other location will be the Forest City Ratner-owned 102 North End Ave. in Battery Park City. The retailer took 25,000 sf of space. Both sites will contain more than 41,000 pairs of shoes.