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Retailer Tommy Hilfiger is shuttering the doors of its global flagship, marking another major departure for the once-glorious shopping strip of Fifth Avenue.
The store at 681 Fifth Ave. spans 22K SF and has been open for a decade, Women’s Wear Daily reports. The legendary designer will close the Fifth Avenue location and a store on Collins Avenue in Miami next month.
“We will focus on next generation retail experiences and partnerships to stay ahead of today’s continuously changing shopping habits and preferences,” Daniel Grieder, the CEO of Tommy Hilfiger Global and PVH Europe, told WWD. “This means we are reshaping our retail landscape in North America … Leveraging our store-of-the-future concepts rolled out in the global retail landscape.”
Fifth Avenue has felt the impacts of retail’s new world order acutely. Its asking rents, the highest in the world, have tumbled after years of unchecked growth and rent manipulation.
Polo Ralph Lauren shut its flagship there in April 2017, amid falling sales and stagnant profits. Lord & Taylor closed earlier this year, and the iconic building is now owned by WeWork Property Investors, which paid $850M for it in February and hasn't announced plans for the departed retail space (the upper floors are set to become WeWork's global headquarters).
Vacancies plague the rest of the corridor, along with the rest of the city. Two studies last year found that a fifth of all street retail space in Manhattan is vacant.
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