Beloved Soho seafood staple Lure Fishbar will doubtless get the hook when its lease expires — as a result of luxurious retailer Prada has its sights set on the prized location, The Publish has realized.
The Milan-based firm desires in addition Lure from its underground area on the nook of Prince Road — the place it has been for 20 years — and change it with a Prada-branded bakery and cafe, sources stated.
It’s “all but a done deal. Prada has four times more space than Lure, and [landlord] Peter Brant isn’t likely to say no,” one distinguished dealer who will not be concerned on the location informed The Publish.
Prada, which has been aggressively increasing within the US, already leases about 20,000 sq. ft within the 176,000 square-foot workplace and retail constructing between Broadway and Mercer Road.
Lure Fishbar’s lease on its 5,000 sq. ft expires in early 2026.
The anticipated arrivederci comes after the corporate, with annual income of $4.2 billion, lately bought the Fifth Avenue websites of its flagship retailer from Jeff Sutton for a mixed $835 million, as The Publish beforehand reported.
“They want the same kind of control over their Soho space and Lure is in their way,” the dealer stated.
Brant, the investor and artwork patron who’s married to supermodel Stephanie Seymour, owns the constructing’s long-term leasehold. It wasn’t identified whether or not Brant has informed Lure its sublease gained’t be renewed.
Blogger Emily Sundberg posted on the FeedMe e-newsletter web site Friday about “a rumor . . . that Prada was taking over the Lure Fishbar location.”
She wrote she obtained a textual content that “confirmed this rumor.”
Lure proprietor John McDonald informed The Publish on Monday that he was unaware of the Prada buzz.
“I would hope that if they take over the entire building, they would want to keep Lure Fishbar given its long-standing history and role in Soho for more than 20 years,” he stated.
Sources stated the restaurant pays practically $2 million a yr in lease, a outstanding quantity for an area solely within the basement, reached by an outside metallic staircase on the constructing’s Mercer Road facet.
Not one of the gamers concerned responded to requests for clarification and remark, together with the Peter Brant Basis; Prada USA retail director Carlo Croso; and Prada spokesman Nikolas Pankau.
Lure Fishbar has been one of many metropolis’s hottest seafood eateries because it opened within the coronary heart of Soho in 2004.
Time Out NY lately named it the No. 1 greatest Soho restaurant and Thrillist referred to as it “the Balthazar of the sea.” Lure chef Preston Clark was named by the NYC Tourism + Conventions, the town’s official tourism company, as “one of the black chefs shaking up the NYC food scene.”
Amongst Lure’s followers is Mitchell Moss, an NYU professor of city coverage and planning. Moss, a frequent buyer, stated, “Lure is more than a restaurant. It’s the connective tissue that ties people from all sectors of city together.”
He added, “Prada is a global brand with no local roots. Lure is the opposite. They complement each other and no one gains if Prada pushes Lure out. Prada would be resented and diminished.”
