French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH is making moves around its pocket of Billionaires’ Row on East 57th Street.
First, there’s a lease out to relocate its US headquarters to 550 Madison Ave. — and another to shuffle its Louis Vuitton store to the Trump Organization’s 6 E. 57th St., while the fashion house’s own location across the street is being renovated.
Those 36,000 square feet at 6 E. 57th St. are still occupied by Tiffany & Co. — which is also an LVMH subsidiary — and the luxury retailers will play musical chairs of sorts once the jeweler moves next door to its own redeveloped digs on the corner of Fifth Avenue this spring.
(Tiffany’s landmarked headquarters space, 727 Fifth Ave., has been getting an entire facelift by OMA architects that includes a new, multi-level glass penthouse and an outdoor terrace, while Peter Marino has been tapped for the interiors. It’s completing elevator installations and waiting for signoffs before holding a grand opening celebration, sources said.)
LVMH is headed by French billionaire Bernard Arnault — the richest man in the world. He bought Tiffany in 2021 in a $13 billion-plus deal while the jeweler’s renovations were already underway. It has been operating out of the former NikeTown space, at 6 E. 57th St., under a sublease.
The deal for the Louis Vuitton move there was cut directly with former president Donald Trump. The space is connected to both Trump Tower and the atrium that links to the IBM office tower at 590 Madison Ave.
Although two, five-year options to renew at low rents remained on that NikeTown lease, Trump sealed a short-term deal with Arnault’s son, Alex.
“The deal was done at huge numbers,” one real estate source told The Post, believed to be just five years. Another source pegged the rent at $20 million per year.
The French company’s exclusive retail broker, Robin Zendell, the Trump Organization and LVMH did not respond to requests for comment.
The possibility of LVMH using the Nike spot for one of its numerous luxury brands has been buzzed about since Feb. 15, when Trump posted on his Truth Social feed that he had dinner with Alex Arnault and his wife Géraldine at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
“We were celebrating the deal we made on the former Nike Store on East 57th Street and Fifth Avenue,” Trump wrote. “Alex is very excited about the re-opening of Tiffany. It will be a truly spectacular renovation, and bring Tiffany into a new Era of fabulous Success and Growth!”
Alex is the second oldest son of Bernard Arnault, and has been focused on Tiffany’s as EVP and head of communications since 2021.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Alex just paid some $18 million to buy a penthouse at 30 Park Place downtown, which sits above the Four Seasons hotel.
Louis Vuitton’s offices and store are in a 15-story building at 1 E. 57th St. that, at one time, was the Warner Brothers store. LVMH has been methodically updating the upper office floors, but will soon refresh the three-level store itself.
LVMH’s city headquarters is to the east, at 19 E. 57th St. It is a mere 62 feet wide and was designed by Pritzker-winning architect Christian de Portzamparc. Opened in December 1999, it’s technologically ancient and, despite its glass curtain wall bumps and pretty details, its 23 stories are a warren of small offices.
Executives have been touring spaces in the neighborhood, but a short-term deal has eluded them because it would take extremely high rents to offset the needed capital improvements that are typically spread over a long lease.
LVMH finally settled on the long-term deal at 550 Madison Ave. where sources say there’s now a lease out for 150,000 square feet. Asking rents are $190 per foot.
The former Sony Building has undergone a complete transformation including a new public atrium between East 55th and 56th streets.
Neither Mary Ann Tighe of CBRE who represents the building ownership, the Olayan Group, nor Jeffrey Peck of Savills who represents LV North America returned requests for comment.
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