Victoria’s Secret Sues NYC Landlord Over $938,000 in Rent
- Pandemic ‘forever altered’ retail landscape, company says
- Case reflects growing tension between city tenants, landlords
A Victoria's Secret in Herald Square in New York.
Photographer: Nina Westervelt/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Victoria’s Secret and its parent company L Brands Inc. are suing the landlord of their flagship store in New York’s Herald Square, arguing that the coronavirus pandemic has rendered it “impossible” to continue paying almost $1 million a month in rent.
The city’s retail industry has been “shattered” and “forever altered” since New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a stay-home order in March that closed all but essential businesses, Victoria’s Secret said in the lawsuit filed Monday in state court. The company spends $938,000 a month on its mid-town Manhattan store, located on a Broadway corner that gets two million visitors a year and is adjacent to Macy’s flagship department store.