By LOIS WEISS
Historical buildings are beautiful to behold but challenging for retailers. When the right one comes along, however, it can turn what could have been an obstacle into a winning combination.

Most retailers simply want to start with what’s called a “plain vanilla box” – a white sheet-rocked store ready for their own dramatic installation.
The ground floors of landmarked city buildings are far from plain and are often quite dramatic already, leaving their owners scratching their heads for a solution that can make the glorious space into a fetching sales floor without losing the “Wow” factor.
“Most of the buildings we’ve been working on Downtown are landmarked,” said Darrell Rubens, managing director of Winick Realty Group.
To date, he’s succeeding in bringing True Religion to 14 Wall Street, BMW to 67 Wall, and Thomas Pink to 63 Wall.
Some of these, like Thomas Pink, had portions of the interior also either landmarked or under the auspices of the New York State Historic Preservation Office. Listing with SHPO allows owners of certain historic properties to take a 20 percent federal income tax credit for the costs of substantial rehabilitation, and there can be other property tax assessment benefits as well. But those benefits have to be weighed against the complexities of leasing the retail spaces.
One retailer that has taken on an historic interior and made it work is Sephora at the Scribner’s Building on Fifth Avenue.
Another often cited “winner” is the Cipriani family’s use of the former banking halls at 110 E. 42nd Street and 55 Wall, as catering facilities.
“The issue there at 110 wasn’t Landmarks per se, but the size of the thing,” said Benjamin Fox, President of Winick Realty Group who worked on the deal.
“The ground floor is about 40,000 feet, so with 60 foot ceilings, the universe of tenants for that space is rather limited.
“The Cipriani family had a tremendous respect for architecture and they understood how to turn a negative into a positive.”
Even though CBGB’s was not landmarked and he could have ripped it all out, John Varvatos maintained in his shop many of the original funky features of the former punk palace.
“John loves music anyway and it was perfect because so much of his business is entertainment related,” said broker, Robert Cohen, executive vice president of Robert K. Futterman & Associates. “We… had been looking for a second location but uptown, and if it wasn’t CBGB, the Bowery wouldn’t have been an option.”
Cohen noted that nobody wanted to install a bank, or an “ugly” restaurant or anything that would degrade the character and the history of what had taken place in the building.
“John saw the light,” Cohen said.
In fact, brokers said that if a client walks into a historical space and doesn’t “get it”, the space won’t work for them.
“You want someone with as much character as the building to make it usable and beautiful,” said Rubens, gatekeeper for such a space at 20 Exchange Place.
Built in 1931 as the City Bank Farmers Trust Building – a Citigroup predecessor – its dark wood interiors and marble floors practically scream “man shop,” Ralph Lauren, spa, gallery of restaurant.
Nevertheless, with 133,000 feet and numerous opportunities to slice and dice the spaces that include both above and below grade neither regions, Rubens joked, “If Target really wanted to change its name to “Tar-jay” we have enough space.”
The building’s owner, Jack Berman, vice president of Metro Loft Management which previously developed both 63 and 67 Wall and is creating residential apartments in the tower above the hall, said: “The spaces we have at 20 Exchange are not spaces we would want to see destroyed.”
Christine Emery, senior managing director of the Lansco Corp. who previously repped 15 Broad in its lease to Hermes, said the right retailer can use the 20 Exchange space because it is very vaulted and open with good light and high ceilings.
“You can built a structure within structure and you are working within a space that is already pretty easy to deal with,” she said. “There are elevators and lifts going to all floors, and you can create alternate ADA (American with Disabilities Act) entrances.”
Colleague Robin Abrams, executive vice president of the Lansco Corp., said she has looked at various landmarked spaces with her tenants and finds them very challenging.
“You are looking for a needle in a haystack and hope there is someone out there who can appreciate value and work with the pluses and the minuses of a space like this,” Abrams said.
Abrams noted that banks and chain stores now want to be retail friendly, are cost conscious and often have a prototypical design.
“It’s very expensive if you have to rehab the interior,” Abrams said of some historical properties that have not been brought up to snuff the owners.
Because they are very adaptable, food uses often work in such locations, said Fox. He is currently marketing a multi-level former movie theater on the Upper West Side on Broadway at W. 99th Street that has a landmarked Art Deco exterior with no windown and a marquee that must be maintained.
“It’s not easy,” said Fox. “You need a creative retailer.”
Especially with an asking rent of $1.3 million per year. ■