Tommy tailors future

Retailer makes a high-concept move

TOMMY Hilfiger’s move to 285 Madison Ave. this fall is a case study in why a major company decides to leave another building where it’s been happy for more than a dozen years.

As first reported Monday on nypost.com, Hilfiger — a division of global apparel giant PVH Corp. — signed a lease for 200,000 square feet at Aby Rosen’s 285 Madison Ave. at East 40th Street, where it will have all of seven floors and parts of two others.

It will move from RXR Realty’s Starrett-Lehigh Building on far West 26th Street, where it’s been since 2004.

It isn’t about rent — the “ask” at 285 Madison was in the $70s per square foot over the floors it’s taking, compared with typical “asks” of the upper $60s to low $70s at Starrett-Lehigh.

But according to Matthew Astrachan, part of a JLL team that repped PVH, the new digs are a better fit for high-end apparelmaker Hilfiger for at least three reasons.

Although Hilfiger had 280,000 square feet at mammoth Starrett-Lehigh, greater efficiencies at its new Midtown home will make it easier for the company “to create a workplace of the future,” Astrachan said.

That means a custom-designed, more collaborative work space for Hilfiger’s creative and corporate staff, as well as “very attractive shared amenities” including a rooftop lounge, gym facility and bicycle room.

The new offices will let Hilfiger “have more modern showrooms and a mock store,” Astrachan said.

Another advantage: The move puts Tommy Hilfiger within “true walking distance” of PVH’s headquarters at 200 Madison Ave., its Calvin Klein division at 205 W. 39th St. and more PVH offices at 501 Seventh Ave.

From employees’ point of view, it also means easy walking distance to Grand Central Terminal, East Side subway lines and Midtown shopping and dining —whereas StarrettLehigh is located way westward, between 11th and 12th avenues.

After Rosen’s RFR Realty bought then-vacant 285 Madison with partners in 2012, it launched a capital improvement program — part of a total $150 million it spent to modernize 285 Madison and two other prewar properties.

(Rosen has since bought out the partners and is the sole owner of 285 Madison.)

The building, once home to Young & Rubicam, is now more than 90 percent leased to a diverse array of tenants including GE Corporate and literary agency Janklow & Nesbit.

In a statement, PVH Chief Operating and Financial Officer Michael

Shaffer credited JLL for landing a new home that “will allow for the continued growth of Tommy Hilfiger.”

Astrachan’s JLL team for PVH included Mitchell Konsker, Joseph Messina and Steven Bauer. Landlord Rosen was repped by JLL’s Alexander Chudnoff, , Dan Turkewitz and Diana Biasotti and by RFR’s leasing director,

AJ Camhi, inhouse.

Two adjoining, interconnected 19th-century townhouse buildings are going to market via CBRE’s Dan

Kaplan. Sources said they could fetch more than $30 million.

The buildings at 11-13 E. 12th St. have six marketrate rental apartments. More interesting to history buffs, 13 E. 12th St. was once owned by Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the US. It later was home for 75 years — 1924 to 1999 — to the Italian eatery Asti, where waiters sang operatic arias for diners — as featured in the 1988 Tom Hanks movie “Big.” The site is today home to popular restaurant Strip House.

The city Board of Standards and Appeals has scheduled a second hearing for March 28 on the bid to put up a taller apartment-retail building at 432 E. 14th St. than zoning allows.

We reported recently that Benenson Capital Partners and Mack Real Estate Group want a variance on hardship grounds.

They said the surprise discovery of an underground stream will make the project prohibitively expensive unless they can increase its height from eight stores to 12 stories.

At a hearing on Jan. 24, the BSA listened to testimony by the developers and by community residents and elected officials opposing the plea.

Auditing giant KPMG is adding more space at SL Green’s 1350 Sixth Ave.

The firm signed an expansion lease for 19,517 square feet encompassing the entire 11th floor, increasing its space at the tower to nearly 112,000 square feet. CBRE’s Patrick Mur

phy and Jamie Dennison represented KPMG. Howard Tenenbaum and Gary Rosen repped SL Green in-house.