Bloomies heads south.

Bloomingdale's is planning to open a store at 504 Broadway in SoHo, Federated Department Stores, Inc. announced.

Newmark New Spectrum, the retail division of Newmark & Company Real Estate, Inc., completed the lease transaction.

"We're very excited about this deal," said Elliot Resnick, executive vice president of Newmark. "This is a tremendous deal for the SoHo district."

The property is currently the flagship of Canal Jeans, an urban clothing emporium. Newmark, which was aware that Bloomingdale's had been considering opening a SoHo location, brought the retailer to the property, which was not on the market at the time.

"They made a deal happen when the property wasn't even on the market," Resnick said.

Newmark negotiated a 49-year lease of the entire 124,000-square-foot property, which will provide 90,000 SF of selling space on seven floors. The location, between Broome and Spring Streets in SoHo, will have a sharp contemporary focus.

This will be Bloomingdale's second store in Manhattan; the other store is located at 1000 Third Ave.

Resnick and Robert L. Pressman, executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield (formerly of Newmark Retail Financial Advisors) represented the property's owner, 504 Broadway Realty LLC, in this transaction.

Resnick said SoHo has been experiencing some difficulty with vacancies since Sept. 11, but said the stretch of Broadway where Bloomingdale's will be located has not been affected as much.

"The Broadway corridor has high foot traffic," he said.

The store will be extensively remodeled over the next few months to create a classic, modern six-level store that will offer distinctive collections of men's and women's apparel, cosmetics, shoes and accessories. Construction is expected to begin in the spring with a planned fall 2003 store opening.

"The store also will offer a selected assortment of home merchandise, presented in unique lifestyle settings," according to Federated.

Other highlights of the store include a dramatic new escalator well, rising from the lower level to the fifth floor along a classic SoHo brick wall. Architects are designing each level to capture the spirit of SoHo, keeping the details of a loft environment while adding details distinctive of Bloomingdale's. Particular attention also will be paid to the exterior of the building, with windows uncovered to allow natural daylight into the store and adding illumination to Crosby Street and the Broadway facade, according to Federated.

Each level of the new store will have space allocated to the latest fashion finds and the hottest trends, making Bloomingdale's SoHo store a destination for contemporary collections not found elsewhere. The lower level will be exclusively men's, with segmented shops featuring the newest and also the best of what Bloomingdale's has to offer. The main level will be cosmetics, set on Bloomingdale's signature black and white checkerboard floor, plus fashion accessories, jewelry and handbags. Up a flight of stairs will be the B'cafe, and the second level will be merchandised with contemporary designer brands and shoes. The third level will house all of Bloomingdale's Young East Sider collections. The fourth level will be devoted to denim and denim collections and the fifth level will be the Home Studio, according to Federated.

"Bloomingdale's represents many firsts--in fashion, in unique approaches to merchandising and now in location," said Terry J. Lundgren, Federated's president and chief operating/merchandising officer. "Bloomingdale's has been a special tradition for New Yorkers and visitors to this great city for more than a century, and now as the only department store located in the vibrant SoHo area, Bloomingdale's will bring its most innovative styles to one of the city's most creative neighborhoods."

Federated has corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York and annual sales of more than $15.6 billion. Federated currently operates more than 450 stores in 34 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, under the names of Macy's, Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus and Rich's.