Tiffany Unveils Landmark in Epicenter of Retail Luxury
Flagship reopening heralds redo of Manhattan's priciest shopping district.
Nearly four years after it was closed and encased in a cocoon of scaffolding, a 21st-century rendition of Tiffany & Co.’s flagship store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th has debuted, the most widely anticipated in a series of renovations underway at iconic storefronts in the luxury shopping district.
Known as the Landmark, Tiffany’s flagship store has been reimagined with multi-story casement-style arched windows and a parquet-style wooden floor on the ground floor of the renovated 10-story building that sits under a corner of Trump Tower.
The Landmark was designed by architect Peter Marino, a signature designer of luxury retail flagships.
According to a report in Reuters, billions in capital investment have been flowing into an area of Midtown extending from 49th Street to the Plaza Hotel and spanning Fifth and Madison Avenue, home to flagship luxury stores for Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman as well as Tiffany’s.
Luxury retailers are making a large bet that the surge of tourism to Manhattan—particularly international travel—will drive traffic to the world-famous luxury shopping district.
The stakes are global: LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group and Europe’s most valuable company, bought Tiffany in 2021 for $16B. Before it closed for the renovation in 2019, the flagship store accounted for 10% of Tiffany’s global sales.
LVMH has moved Tiffany to the high end of the luxury market, the report said (we didn’t know there was a higher end than Tiffany, either) increasing the company’s global sales to about $4.5B from $2.8B in 2020.
LVMH, which does not disclose how much it spends on store renovations, also has invested heavily in Bulgari, the silversmiths across the street from Tiffany.
High profile investments in the luxury retail district include the renovation of the Fifth Avenue headquarters of Rolex, which is redesigning its ground floor flagship and building a 25-story glass office tower over it.
The renovation isn’t limited to luxury retail outlets. Developers SHVO is spending $135M to convert 685 Fifth Avenue into luxury residences managed by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.
Brookfield Properties is spending $400M to renovate 660 Fifth Avenue, a 39-story office building.
What real estate analysts are calling a “renaissance” of the Fifth Avenue shopping district came after the pandemic and high rents in the area led to an exodus of brands shutting flagship stores on Fifth Avenue, including Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Gap.
Renewed interest in the area has been spurred by retail rents for ground floor spaces dropping to about $2,000 per square foot.