New York's Fifth Avenue Transformation Gets Fully Funded With $400 Million
On Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, there's been plenty of investment by luxury brands — now the city itself is fully realizing the venue's value and potential.
On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams announced he's putting an additional $250 million into his fiscal 2026 budget, adding that to the $153 million previously allocated to fund a dramatic transformation of Fifth Avenue, bringing the total budget to over $400 million.
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Fifth Avenue this year celebrates its 200th anniversary, but the world-famous thoroughfare has never had a major redesign.
The mayor, who is running to be re-elected this year, expects the $400 million project to pay for itself within five years of its completion through increased property and sales tax revenue. He also said it will lead to more jobs.
The transformation plan calls for widening the sidewalks, reducing traffic lanes to three from the current five, adding trees, planters, benches, improved lighting and infrastructure to reduce the impact of storms, and possibly adding more vehicle-free weekends. The idea is to make it easier and more inviting for shoppers to walk up and down the avenue, making it a bit more like the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
'This is a huge, huge economic stimulus for this entire city,' Adams said during a press conference. Construction is set to begin in early 2028.
Fifth Avenue, Adams said, 'was once known as America's Street of Dreams, and those dreams have often remained silent. Well, today we're seeing the alarm clock going off, we're waking up, and we're going to wake up the economic stability of this great community in this great area.
'Two centuries ago, Fifth Avenue was just a dirt road,' the mayor said. 'It's hard to even imagine and believe that. But it has turned and transformed itself, and today it's a busting boulevard of shopping, restaurants, businesses and tourism. It's also home to five lanes of traffic congestion, pollution and high foot traffic. More people walk down Fifth Avenue in one hour than would fill Madison Square Garden tonight when the Knicks beat the Pacers and head their way to the finals. Got to get that in.
'So this current design is not working. It's not modernized enough. It has not evolved with the time. So as part of our Best Budget Ever, we are injecting an additional $250 million to fully fund the … future of Fifth Avenue Partnership's plan to transform Fifth Avenue's entire stretch of real estate from Bryant Park to Central Park.'
First deputy Mayor Randy Mastro added: 'No more crammed sidewalks. No more dodging traffic. We're making Fifth Avenue more walkable, greener and safer. The stretch of real estate that we enjoy walking all the time from Bryant Park to Central Park, we're going to double the sidewalk space, shorten the crosswalks so that the avenue is safer to cross, green the avenue with more than 230 tree planters, and add in new seating and better lighting.
'We don't have to travel to Paris or London to experience the world-class shopping restaurants and green pedestrian-friendly streets. We're going to have that right here to add to all of the other attractions we have,' he said.
The transformation plan is a collaboration between city agencies and the Future of Fifth Partnership, which includes the Fifth Avenue Association, the Grand Central Partnership, the Central Park Conservancy and the Bryant Park Corporation.
The ritzy, internationally renowned thoroughfare, which commands the world's highest commercial rents, has undergone an unprecedented degree of investment, retail development and transformation in Midtown for more than two years.
It all seemed to conspicuously take off around August 2023 with opening of the redesigned Tiffany flagship with its completely transformed interior.
The Tiffany metamorphosis — which some sources pegged at $250 million to $350 million, while other sources estimate that cost was as high as $600 million to $800 million, including the art — was followed by a flurry of property acquisitions at lavish prices by luxury conglomerates.
Prada bought 724 Fifth Avenue, site of its New York flagship, and the building next door where Abercrombie & Fitch formerly operated, for $835 million. Kering, owner of Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta and Alexander McQueen, bought the 115,000-square-foot retail space at 715–717 Fifth Avenue for $963 million, considered the most expensive high street retail deal in the U.S. Armani will vacate the site and move to the designer's mixed-used project under construction and opening in October at 760 Madison Avenue, and Dolce & Gabbana will also vacate the site and relocate to 695 Madison Avenue.
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