Lower Rent Sweetens Deal for NY Baker

Lulu Cake Boutique gobbles up Eighth Avenue lease for first Manhattan outpost as it eyes locations for additional NYC stores.

Lower rents have finally opened the door to Manhattan for Scarsdale-based Lulu Cake Boutique. The Westchester County bakery, which specializes in wedding cakes, recently signed a 10-year lease for 900 square feet at 112 Eighth Ave., between West 15th and West 16th streets, for its first Manhattan outpost, but not its last. Asking rent for the deal, which includes a 700-square-foot basement, was $125 a square foot.

“Lulu’s is swooping in while the prices are low and taking advantage of a decent leasing rate,” said STEVE RAPPAPORT, the Sinvin Realty broker who represented Lulu’s. He noted that rents are firming up in the area after suffering drops of 15% in the last year.

Lulu’s will open for business in three months, but in the meantime it is already looking around for additional outposts on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, according to Mr. Rappaport. “They deliver between 25 and 100 cakes each week to Manhattan—they know they have a clientele here,” he said.

The Eighth Avenue space formerly housed a clothing boutique. Landlord the Brodsky Organization was represented in-house.