Barneys Corporate Headquarters Expands to 71,000 Square Feet on Fifth Avenue

The corporate headquarters of Barneys New York will remain at the 40-storey Midtown office tower after signing a lease renewal for the 71,000-square-foot space at 575 Fifth Avenue.

The department store chain will occupy floors 8, 9 and 11 at the 520,000-square-foot property, where it previously leased two floors at the tower while subleasing another floor. The new lease gives a little expansion of Barneys' space in the building, according to The Real Deal.

The building owners, Beacon Capital Partners and MetLife, were represented by a CBRE team led by Keith Caggiano, Gregg Rothkina and David Caperna. On the other handm Barneys was represented by Ross Perlman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.

Both brokers confirmed the deal but have declined to give further comments. A spokesperson from Barneys also declined to comment. The asking rents and the length of the lease were not disclosed as well.

Last year, a 50 percent stake of the office tower at 575 Fifth Avenue was acquired by Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners.

Metlife acquired the building for $385 million in 2005 from a partnership that included Fred Wilpon's Sterling Equities.

Meanwhile, The Real Deal reported last Summer that Barneys had moved its visual department to a 10,000-square-foot manufacturing and office space in Long Island City.

Barneys, Inc is a family-run retail store of high-quality men's and women's fashion wear, as well as gifts, fragrances, cosmetics, house wares, antiques, jewelry, stationery, and luggage. The luxury store chain leases and operates three large stores in prime locations in New York City, Chicago, and Beverly Hills, California, as well as other smaller stores in lower Manhattan, plus several discount outlet stores.

Barneys, for a time, was the only store in Manhattan offering cut-rate men's suites for decades. The store went upscale in the 1960s. By 1990, Barneys had established a chain of stores stretching as far as Tokyo. Because of overspending, the family company became heavily indebted and filed for bankruptcy protection in January 1996. Three years later, it emerged from bankruptcy under a new ownership.