Sony, who has been operating at 550 Madison Ave. for 22 years, will move to their new location at 11 Madison Ave. at the base of its new headquarters in March.
Sony will be vacating 25, 451 square feet store at the 550 Madison Ave. where it sells TVs, cameras and other electronic devices. It is located between the East 55th and the East 56th streets. The closure is following the company's plan to move its New York City corporate headquarters to 11 Madison Ave. in midtown south and will reopen its retail store there, as reported by Crain's New York.
Sony plans to keep only two retail outlets in operation: one at Madison Ave and another in Los Angeles. So, in the past years, it shuttered most of its stand-alone retails stores.
The 550 Madison's owners hired a broker named Karen Bellantoni from RFK, a retail leasing firm, to market and fill the space. The building has around 15, 000 square feet conventional ground-floor and basement store space, and another 10, 000 square feet on the second and third floor, which is restricted for cultural use, per building's zoning. Bellantoni is planning to bring a tenant that will sell merchandise and likely use the space upstairs as a museum or showroom. It is currently Sony's entertainment and technology museum called the Wonder Lab.
Bellantoni said, "A brand can use the upstairs as a showcase for who they are, how they were created and give visitors a chance to have an experience."
According to The Real Deal, the 550 Madison Ave. building is sold to the Chetrit Group and Clipper Equity for $1.14 billion in 2013. The asking rent for the Sony retail space would be more than $1, 000 per square foot, Bellantoni said.
Meanwhile, the Chetrit and Clipper would like to transform the building into a luxury residential building with 113 condos as well as a 170-key hotel.
