96,000 s/f expansion at LeFrak tower.

Cushman & Wakefield announced that VF Sportswear, a division of apparel giant VF Corporation, has renewed and expanded its office lease to lock in room for growth at one of midtown's premier office buildings.

VF Sportwear's lease, for a total of 168,000 s/f at 40 West 57th St., includes 48,000 s/f of immediate expansion space for the headquarters of its well-known Nautica[R] and Kipling[R] brands.

The long-term agreement includes an option for up to 4.8,000 s/f of additional space in the future, which would bring the firm's presence in the building to more than 215,000 s/f

Cushman & Wakefield senior directors, Stephen Downes and Don Preate, represented VF Sportswear in its office space evaluation and lease negotiations. Charles R. Borrok, a Cushman & Wakefield vice chairman, represented the landlord, the Lefrak Organization.

According to Downes, "large blocks of comparable class-A space in midtown are getting harder to find, and growing firms like VF Sportswear are locking-in space for future growth needs now."

At the end of March, the class-A vacancy rate in midtown for space available directly from landlords dropped to 5.8% from 6.6% one year earlier.

40 West 57th St. rises 34 stories and totals more than 700,000 s/f.