Valentino sues to break 5th Ave. lease

Fashion brand Valentino wants to break the lease on its chic Fifth Avenue location — because the coronavirus is stopping it from conducting “high-end” business, a new lawsuit says.

The Italian luxury retail and design company says even if the Big Apple overcomes the pandemic, “the social and economic landscapes have been radically altered in a way that has drastically, if not irreparably, hindered Valentino’s ability to conduct high-end retail business,” at the primo shopping locale, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit.

Valentino, which leases four levels, is asking a judge to allow it to break its pricey lease with landlord 693 Fifth Owner LLC by the end of the year, despite a contract that is slated to run through July 2029, the court papers say.

Since the state “PAUSE” executive order went into effect, closing businesses for months — and which is now only allowing them to open in a very limited way — Valentino cannot “offer in-boutique retail sales, or associated services such as fittings … as the company operated before the COVID-19 pandemic,” the lawsuit claims.

After notifying the owner it wanted to break the lease, Valentino was told that 693 Fifth Owner “would not accept such a surrender, and, notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, disputed that Valentino’s obligations under the Lease have been excused, leaving Valentino with no alternative but to commence this action,” the suit alleges.

693 Fifth Owner lawyer Robert Cyruli told The Post, “My client will not choose to litigate this in the media.”