plans to take over the space that Lure Fishbar has occupied in SoHo for 20 years remains a question mark, but several forces in the fashion industry want it to stay put.is vying to take over Lure’s subterranean space that is in the same building that houses Pradas’s store, Lure’s owner John McDonald has been inundated by inquiries from people in the fashion industry about the situation, including some high-profile diners.
Cindy Crawford, Chris Rock, John Varvatos, Nicole Miller and “so many more that are all longtime regulars are all getting very vocal about asking Prada to be a hero, not a villain to SoHo,” McDonald said.“What’s so ironic is this is fashion’s cafeteria for stylists, models, photographers, the whole arc including the media and the magazine world. I would hope that Miuccia , Lorenzo Bertelli and all of these guys would want to be the preservation agents of something like this and be the hero. It’s an easy win,” McDonald said. “Even the customers at Prada are coming in and saying, ‘Tell me it isn’t true.’ It’s the de-facto cafeteria even for all of the salespeople upstairs .” The investor and art collector Peter Brant reportedly owns the long-term leaseholds on the building. A media request to Allison Brant at the Brant Foundation was unreturned Wednesday. Emily Sundberg reported in her Dec. 14 “Feed Me” that the Prada-owned Pasticceria Marchesi, which dates back to 1824, could potentially take over the space. On Tuesday, the New York Post reported rumblings that Prada wants to take over Lure’s 5,000-square-foot space at the corner of Mercer and Lafayette Streets when the seafood restaurant’s lease expires in the first quarter of 2026. McDonald said Wednesday that he knows “through very high-level sources in real estate” that Prada is taking the lease for the whole building. The company has not told McDonald “unequivocally that in 16 months” he will be kicked out, he stresse