Austin Reed is selling the lease of its flagship shop at 100 Regent Street, W1, to fund manager Hermes.
Hermes is already the long-leaseholder of the shop, where the Crown Estate is the freeholder.
The deal will pave the way for Hermes to relet the space to a new retailer. The 23,500 sq ft shop could be a flagship opportunity for a sole retailer, or be split into new units to house multiple retailers.
The store has already attracted interest from a number of domestic and international parties.
Austin Reed put the lease up for sale for £10m as the business slipped into administration in April. Alix Partners was appointed as administrator, but failed to find a buyer for the whole business.
Austin Reed was paying £2.9m pa for the 23,500 sq ft shop on the corner of Regent Street and Glasshouse Street. It was the firm’s largest and most valuable asset. It was marketed by retail agency GCW separately to the rest of Austin Reed’s 155-strong portfolio.
Austin Reed’s other most desirable shops are in Cribbs Causeway in Bristol; the Bentall Centre in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey; Poultry, EC2, and Canary Wharf, E14. The remainder are in regional market towns and have been put on the market after the administrator failed to find a buyer for the whole portfolio.
Philip Day’s Edinburgh Woollen Mill has bought the Austin Reed brand and five concession shops at Boundary Mill outlet villages in the North of England.
The shops are likely to appeal to retailers including White Stuff, White Company and Space NK, as well as coffee shops such as Caffè Nero and Costa, and mobile phone shops.
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