After 50 years as a faceless bank branch, it’s time for the precious corner space on the ground floor of 785 Fifth Ave. to finally welcome a retail tenant — Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet, which signed a lease for the entire, nearly 12,000 square-foot corner at East 60th Street.
The narrow-windowed former Citibank branch was put up for grabs through brokerage Newmark by the building’s co-op board in late 2023. The luxury address known as the Parc Cinq is home to such “masters of the universe” as Hollywood mogul David Geffen, who, as Page Six reported, delighted neighbors by paying for an extensive lobby redesign four years ago.
The new lease extends the prime Fifth Avenue shopping corridor a full block north. Audemars Piguet will share the block with the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and Cipriani’s flagship restaurant.
The asking rent for the two-level space was $4.8 million a year, according to sources.
The previous narrow bank windows have been replaced with large, square shopper-friendly windows.
The changes, which required the blessing of the Landmarks Preservation Commission because the building stands in a historic district, were facilitated by Sunday Development, a consulting and development firm that works with what founder John LaValley calls “unconventional owners” such as co-op corporations.
“They brought us in to shepherd the redevelopment” of the 785 Fifth retail space, he said. Challenges included getting the board to invest in the changes before a tenant was found and to excite retailers over a “forgotten corner of Fifth Avenue” a block north of the Dior and Apple stores at the GM Building.
LaValley said the board, advised by Newmark, “turned down a lot of lowball offers from people who really didn’t get it” — meaning the value of a unique Fifth Avenue location never before used for retail.
“Jeff was really a bull” in finding a suitable tenant, LaValley said of Newmark’s Jeffrey Roseman who led the building’s leasing team along with Caleb Petersen and Drew Weiss. None returned calls.
The board chose Audemars Piguet because “It best matched the area and enhanced the story of the building,” LaValley said.
Audemars Piguet currently has a small boutique on East 57th Street in Manhattan. The company is expanding worldwide with large, showplace venues in cities such as Paris and Milan.
Audemars Piguet was repped by CBRE’s Jonathan Schley and by GoodSpace’s Chris DeCrosta.
