Diamond store to move to Fifth Avenue. (Retail New York).

De Beers, the world's leading diamond company, is about to add some sparkle to the exclusive shopping corridor along Fifth Avenue.

The firm, in partnership with Louis Vuitton, a division of its parent company, luxury goods giant LVMH, has just signed a long-term lease for what will be its first-ever retail outlet in the United States - a magnificent flagship store housed in the fashionable St. Regis Hotel at 701-703 Fifth Ave. at the southeast corner of 55th Street. De Beers LV currently operates only one other retail store, on Bond Street in London.

To be known as De Beers, the 7,500-SF Manhattan store will occupy a portion of three floors - the lobby, second and lower levels at the St. Regis Hotel. Most importantly, it will have a corner location extending 50 feet along Fifth Avenue.

"It's hard to imagine a more ideal location for the wold's most prestigious diamond store," asserted De Beers real estate consultant and broker Mark P. Boisi, vice chairman of Corners ABR, who said that his client expects to open its new Fifth Avenue Store in early 2004.

Boisi and Alexandra Frangos of Colliers ABR represented De Beers LV in the 15 1/2 year leasing transaction while C. Bradley Mendelson and David Green of Insignia/ESG's Retail Group represented the landlord, Starwood Hotels + Resorts, Worldwide, Inc.

Noting that the St. Regis Hotel is a premier asset in the Starwood portfolio, Mendelson said that the De Beer's lease "underscores the strength of luxury retailing in Manhattan, in particular along the Fifth Avenue Corridor."

Green felt it was "significant that the company chose New York, especially after Sept. 11, because it sends the message that New York City has incredible resilience and continues to attract the kind of audience De Beers caters to." Surrounding by such high end retailers as Tiffany's, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel, the elegant 315-room St. Regis Hotel, a Beaux Arts five star landmark property that opened in 1904, has recently undergone extensive renovations and upgrades.