Bath & Body Works to Open 9K-SF Store in Flatiron District

Bath & Body Works is opening a new store in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.

The soap and scented lotion purveyor has signed a lease to take over the entire nearly 9,000-square-foot retail portion of 129 Fifth Avenue, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

Bath & Body Works will move into the two-level retail unit, owned by Acadia Realty Trust, in the fall of 2027, according to Crain’s New York Business, which first reported the lease. The eight-story building between East 19th and East 20th streets has 30 residential co-ops on its upper floors.

The length of the lease and the asking rent were unclear, but a report from CBRE found retail rents along Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District averaged $301 per square foot during the third quarter of 2026.

Newmark’s Ariel Schuster and Michael Paster brokered the deal for the landlord, while Jeremy Ezra and Mai Shachi, also from Newmark, repped the tenant, according to Crain’s.

Bath & Body Works seems to be replacing fashion retailer Express in its new Flatiron District space, though it’s unclear which other tenants have vacated 129 Fifth Avenue’s retail portion to make way for the new deal. Express signed a lease for only 5,000 square feet at the property in 2022.

Bath & Body Works has at least 14 other stores in New York City across all five boroughs.

One of those stores is at 304 Park Avenue South not too far from its new Fifth Avenue store, where the retailer sued SL Green Realty — that building’s landlord — in 2020 during the COVID pandemic to get out of its 2,500-square-foot lease. Bath & Body Works argued that an order from then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to close all non-essential retailers in the state rendered its lease “no longer enforceable,” Commercial Observer reported at the time.

It’s unclear whether the new lease represents a relocation from 304 Park Avenue South for the retailer.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.

Source: commercialobserver.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.