Burberry sews up deal at Tishman Speyer building

Ditches Madison Avenue for office across from Bryant Park

Burberry's Jonathan Akeroyd with 11 West 42nd Street (Getty, Google Maps, iStock)
Burberry's Jonathan Akeroyd with 11 West 42nd Street (Getty, Google Maps, iStock)

Burberry is moving its New York City offices from Madison Avenue to a Tishman Speyer tower across from Bryant Park.

The company, which is known for its trademarked “Burberry Check” plaids, signed a 15-year lease for nearly 43,000 square feet at 11 West 42nd Street. It will have the entire 18th floor and part of the 19th.

Burberry will relocate from Westbrook’s 444 Madison Avenue where it has been since 2009 and enjoyed the iconic top-of-tower signage that previously touted Newsweek and later New York magazine when those publications were tenants in the building.

It is unclear what will happen to the signage when Burberry moves out. The retailer previously had stores in the building’s base. Those spaces are now for rent through Cushman & Wakefield.

Burberry’s new digs overlook Bryant Park and sources said the new lease has a starting rent of $64 per square foot with a tenant improvement letter of $130 per square foot along with several months of free rent.

A JLL team including Chris Kraus and Amanda Bokman represented Burberry. An in-house team from Tishman Speyer represented the landlord.

The fashion company joins other garmentos in the West 42nd Street building, including Valentino, Versace and Michael Kors. Other tenants are CIT Group and New York University’s School of Professional Studies.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

NYU renewed its lease last fall, taking 115,000 square feet for five years and getting six months’ of free rent in the deal, along with other sweeteners that reduced the net effective rent to $46.18 per square foot, the New York Post reported.

Soon after that, architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox scored a year of free rent in extending its stay and taking another 38,000 square feet at the building, bringing its total to 100,000.

CIT’s timing was not as good. The commercial lender extended its lease for 15 years in 2018, three years before it was to expire and two years before the pandemic made discounts easy to come by for office tenants.

The 960,000-square-foot office building is known as Salmon Tower for developer Walter J. Salmon. It opened in 1927, just in time to host Herbert Hoover’s campaign headquarters.

Architect York & Sawyer gave the building an H-design that provides for eight corner offices and ample natural light. The huge arched entry is surrounded by bas-relief sculptures that depict the months of the year through their astrology signs.

Burberry did not respond to an email for comment prior to press time.