T.J. Maxx has signed a lease for 28,837 square feet at 150 East 86th Street, taking over the longtime H&M storefront on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The off-price retailer is expected to open in the space by December 2027, filling a gap that's sat empty on the block since H&M pulled out earlier this year.
The deal was the single largest retail lease signed anywhere in Manhattan during the third quarter of 2026, according to East Side Feed. It also stands as the latest sign that the Upper East Side is having a moment: the neighborhood led all Manhattan submarkets in leasing activity last quarter, with 15 separate deals totaling nearly 97,000 square feet, per the same report. The building is owned by Extell Development, and the new space will span roughly 4,000 square feet on the ground floor plus about 25,000 square feet on the second level, according to Commercial Observer's reporting on the lease.
H&M's Long Run on 86th Street Comes to an End
H&M had operated at 150 East 86th Street for nearly 18 years, having opened its flagship Upper East Side store there in May 2008, East Side Feed reported in a separate November 2025 article. The fast-fashion chain permanently closed the location on January 19, laying off 31 employees after filing a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with New York State two months earlier. The closure was part of a broader wave of more than 100 H&M store shutdowns worldwide tied to corporate cost-cutting.
Richard Skulnik brokered the T.J. Maxx lease on behalf of both the retailer and Extell, according to Commercial Observer. Terms including the lease length and asking rent were not disclosed, though the outlet noted that Upper East Side retail rents averaged $259 per square foot in the third quarter of 2026, per a CBRE report cited in the article. Spokespeople for both Extell Development and T.J. Maxx did not respond to requests for comment from Commercial Observer.
Extell's Costly Round Trip on the Property
Extell's path back to 150 East 86th Street has been a pricey one. The developer reacquired the retail condominium and adjacent units for $64 million in July 2025, 15 years after selling the same property to Vornado Realty Trust for $165.28 million in October 2010, according to PincusCo. That repurchase amounted to roughly a 61% discount from the 2010 sale price, PincusCo noted, underscoring how far Manhattan retail valuations have shifted over the past decade and a half.
Extell funded the acquisition with a $60 million loan from Deutsche Bank, while Solil Management, which manages the Sol Goldman estate, retains the underlying ground lease fee ownership of the site, per PincusCo's reporting. Hoodline has previously covered Extell's broader footprint along the corridor, including the developer's land assemblages tied to the 1655 First Avenue tower nearing completion and the 17-story Papaya King site redevelopment.
Joining a Crowded Retail Block
Once it opens, T.J. Maxx will share the Upper East Side block between Lexington and Third Avenues with Target, Old Navy, Foot Locker, Victoria's Secret and Ulta Beauty, according to Commercial Observer. The surrounding 86th Street and Second Avenue corridor has also picked up other new tenants this year, including a 20,500-square-foot lease by Happier Grocery at 210 East 86th Street and a 9,100-square-foot Whole Foods at 1524 Second Avenue, East Side Feed reported.
This marks T.J. Maxx's ninth Manhattan location, joining existing stores in SoHo, Flatiron, Midtown West, Harlem, the Financial District and the Upper West Side, according to RIPCO Real Estate. The 86th Street deal follows T.J. Maxx's first Manhattan lease in nearly a decade, a 40,000-square-foot, 10-year commitment at Jemb Realty's Herald Towers at 50 West 34th Street, where Skulnik also represented the retailer. That Herald Square store carries a blended annual asking rent of roughly $4 million, according to The Real Deal, and is expected to open by the end of 2026.
A Bigger Push From TJX
The Upper East Side expansion fits into a larger growth strategy from parent company TJX Companies, which reported $15.2 billion in net sales for its second fiscal quarter of 2027, ended in August. The company has announced plans to accelerate global store growth to 4% annually, with a specific push toward small-format urban stores, according to Modern Retail. For a corridor that just lost one of its longest-running fast-fashion anchors, the arrival of an off-price heavyweight marks a fairly stark changing of the guard.
