What’s Old Navy is new again.
The chain clothing store is opening up a location in the historic Offerman building on Fulton Mall. The shop is set to take up two stories on the right side of the restored building, joining discount chains TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack.
The head of the brokerage that helped Old Navy parent company the Gap seal the deal wouldn’t say more about the store, but was willing to state the obvious: Downtown real estate is white hot right now.
“Fulton Street is exploding at the seams,” Inline Realty president Michael Friedman said.
Built in 1890, the landmarked structure at Duffield Street housed Martin’s department store from 1924 to 1979. Downtown tycoons Al and Jody Laboz, brothers, are fixing up the place and turning the upper four floors into loft apartments, including a roof deck and a common atrium. The luxury digs will be the first housing on Fulton, outside of a Long Island University dorm, in decades. Old Navy is the latest in a long string of international chains to set up shop on the commercial strip since a 2004 rezoning spurred a development boom Downtown. The rezoning was pitched as a way to bring more office space to the area but new construction has largely been residential.
