Dominating Fifth Avenue at 56th Street clearly isn't enough for Abercrombie & Fitch.
The company plans to open another outpost three blocks south of their tourist-swamped flagship in what's now Hickey Freeman's flagship store at 666 Fifth. Those who aren't fans of the brand might see some significance in that address, but the property's owners mostly sound thrilled to get a huge, sidewalk-clogging line of their very own: "Hickey wasn’t appealing to the tourist trade, which drives volume on Fifth," one rep pointed out to WWD.
Hickey is actually closing due to the bankruptcy of its parent company, Hartmarx, which probably won't open a new branch until its financial woes have been resolved. The same building lost a Brooks Brothers in January, and Abercrombie initially had its eye on that space, but the Hickey location is bigger.
Abercrombie plans to dedicate the new location to its children's label, abercrombie, meaning that any perma-line that does develop will include a lot of strollers.
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