Photo: ajay_suresh via Wikimedia Commons
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Gentle Monster, the South Korean eyewear brand known for stores that look more like art installations than shops, has signed a lease for a 28,500-square-foot space in SoHo.
The brand is taking over part of the former REI flagship in the Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street, on the corner of East Houston Street. REI closed the 35,000-square-foot store in July, after announcing last year that it would leave Manhattan at the end of its 15-year lease.
The rest of the old REI space won’t sit empty, either. Torrisi, the Italian restaurant at the base of the Puck Building, will expand into the remaining portion, growing beyond its current 4,000 square feet, Commercial Observer reported, citing a source with knowledge of the deal. That source also put Gentle Monster’s lease term at more than 10 years.
No opening date has been announced. Gentle Monster already has a SoHo store at 70 Wooster Street, where oversized robotic faces greet shoppers, and it’s unclear whether the brand will keep that location once it moves into the Puck Building.
Founded in Seoul in 2011, Gentle Monster sells avant-garde sunglasses and eyeglasses, with prices running from $250 to more than $500 for special collections.
Nicole Kushner Meyer, president of landlord Kushner Companies, called the brand “a natural fit for the building” in a statement, adding that the lease completes the Puck Building’s turnover to a new generation of tenants. Those tenants include OpenAI, which leased 90,000 square feet of office space upstairs in 2024.
