Lease Amendment Takes Warnaco to 185,000 SF

NEW YORK CITY-It may not seem like a large transaction, but Warnaco Group, Inc. signed a 14,337-sf lease amendment to bring its headquarter space at 501 Seventh Ave. to nearly 185,000 sf.The transaction marks the third time the apparel maker expanded its space at the 18-story building. Terms of the lease–including rental rates and the length of the deal–were not available; however, the average asking rents in the building are in the upper $30s. Scott Pudalov, executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis, is the building’s leasing and management agent. Jim Saunders of Newmark represented Warnaco in the negotiations.Warnaco moved into the nearly 500,000-sf property two years, during the initial stages of the property’s $53-million capital improvement program. Those upgrades, which include new corridors, bathrooms, electrical systems and windows, are nearing completion. Joining Warnaco at the property are LSV Worldwide and Raj Manufacturing. “Warnaco’s brands, which include Calvin Klein, Chaps, Speedo, Catalina and Nautica, are big names in the fashion industry,” Pudalov says. “Consequently, when the company chose 501 for its new headquarters, it piqued the interest of other fashion companies.”501 Seventh Ave. was built in 1923 and is owned by 501 Seventh Avenue Associates LLC, a partnership led by Peter L. Malkin and Leona Helmsley. It is part of the W&H Properties portfolio. Only six pre-built units totaling approximately 10,000 sf are available. When Warnaco relocated its headquarters to the property in 2003, it left its home at 90 Park Ave. and consolidated offices at 149 and 1328 Broadway and 205 W. 239th St. Prior to the repositioning of the asset into the class A office building that attracted Warnaco, the building had made news a year earlier–along with four other assets owned by Wien and Malkin–when a court decision allowed the firm to terminate Helmsely-Spears management and leasing contracts at those properties, according to GlobeSt.com research.