NEW YORK CITY-Fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz is leasing 25,000 sf at 505 Fifth Ave., on the Northeast corner of 42nd Street. The retailer will occupy 7,564 sf of retail space on the ground floor, 11,718 sf on the second floor and 5,066 sf on the lower level. The location is H&M's 10th in Manhattan and scheduled to open spring 2007.

Robert K. Futterman & Associates, LLC's (RKF) Robert Futterman and senior managing director Howard Gilbert represented the landlord, Fifth @ 42nd, LLC, in the transaction. CB Richard Ellis executive vice presidents Jedd Nero and Robert Gibson represented H&M.

The space has been the site of various businesses through the years, none of which were very successful or upscale of upscale.

"There had been a lease out on the property for some time with the government of Thailand," Nero tells the GlobeSt.com. "That fell through. It was a flea market when German developer Axel Stawski bought the property and constructed the 300,000 building on spec."The new retail space, located at the base of a high-tech, class A office/retail property at 505 Fifth Ave., signals a new phase in the Swedish retailer's expansion.

"H&M will become the new anchor retailer for the area and will boost shopping on this portion of Fifth Avenue," says Futterman. Gilbert adds that "H&M will capture the attention of shoppers coming from the major retail corridors of Times Square, Grand Central Station, and Saks Fifth Avenue/Rockefeller Center, and will build on the retail traffic that has been created by existing retail tenants including Banana Republic, Kenneth Cole, Ann Taylor, Sean John, Best Buy and Build-A-Bear Workshop."