PHILADELPHIA-Ann Taylor signed a 10-year lease for 9,000 sf in the 22,000-sf building at 1729 Walnut St., which has been vacant since Borders Books relocated to the corner of Chestnut and Broad Sts. in early 2003. The aggregate value of the new lease is $5 million.

The retailer of women's apparel will unveil a new concept in the space and will retain the Ann Taylor store at 1713 Walnut, according to Larry Steinberg of locally based Michael Salove Co., who negotiated for the building owner. In March, when Kay Krill was elevated to CEO at Ann Taylor, she said the company was in the process of testing and fine-tuning a new format, "our store of the future," which will roll out in 2006, but declined to provide details of the concept.

New York City-based Midwood Management Corp., which owns about 20 retail properties on Walnut and Chestnuts streets, acquired this architecturally distinctive, two-level building and the adjacent 1723 Walnut St., this March for $15 million, or $500 per sf. Together they aggregate 30,000 sf on a stretch of Center City's premier shopping street off Rittenhouse Square. The remaining space in the 1729 property remains vacant. The two buildings were sold by Birmingham, AL-based AIG Baker Real Estate.