A popular Japanese retailer is gambling on pandemic-weary teens with an eye for a high fashion bargain.
2nd Street USA specializes in reselling name-brand clothing at steep discounts and has tripled its number of domestic stores to 660 in the past 10 years.
Newmark Knight Frank just brokered the lease for the chain’s second Manhattan store in Chelsea as part of its ongoing international expansion.
CBRE represented the owner of 142 West 26th Street in the lease for a 5,400 s/f store – 3,700 s/f on the ground floor and 1,700 s/f of basement space – for a 10.5 year term.
“The landlord and tenant were deeply committed to finalizing the transaction despite obstacles brought on by the pandemic,” said CBRE’s Jordan Kaplan, who represented the landlord with Eric Gleber. “With a portfolio of over 500 successful stores in Japan, we anticipate that 2nd Street USA will thrive in their newest New York City location.”
Located between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, 142 West 26th Street is a residential building with ground floor retail offering showroom quality space, 16 ft. ceilings, HVAC, ADA bathrooms and rear skylights on both the ground floor and lower levels.
2nd Street USA was represented by Andrew Connolly and Jake Siegel of Newmark Knight Frank, the chain’s exclusive NYC broker.
A subsidiary of GEO Holdings Corporatio, 2nd Street USA opened its first Manhattan store in Noho last summer as part of a plan to have 4 brick and mortar outlets in the States. Its first store opened in January 2018 on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, California. In the same year, the second US store opened in Old Pasadena in June, and third location opened in Costa Mesa in Orange County in July.
In an interview with Nikkei Asian Review earlier this month, the man overseeing 2nd Street, Yuzo Endo, CEO of parent company Geo Holdings, said, “Demand for secondhand goods grows in a slump.”
He told the magazine he believes secondhand goods will thrive in the new normal as consumers tighten their purse strings and focus even more on price.
