Sherry-Lehmann Readies a Move To Park Avenue

After 72 years on Madison Avenue, the Sherry-Lehmann wine store will be packing up $1.5 million worth of wine and spirits and moving its operation to Park Avenue.

"We're very excited, but it's almost like reinventing the wheel," the chairman of Sherry-Lehmann, Michael Aaron, said.

In the summer of 2007, Mr. Aaron will move his staff of about 70 people and legendary collection of wine to a three-floor, 9,500-square-foot location at 505 Park Ave.

The move comes after Mr. Aaron reached an agreement in July to sell the four-story brownstone that houses Sherry-Lehmann to Vornado Realty Trust. Mr. Aaron declined to comment on the price of the sale, but said it was the highest price per square foot ever paid on Madison Avenue for a brownstone of its type.

The 505 Park Ave. location that formerly housed Morgan Stanley offices boasts a modern façade with a gold and black exterior that is different from the old-world style for which the present Sherry-Lehmann store is famed. At the present location, bottles of wine are displayed in antique wood and glass cases.

While the old cases are staying behind, Mr. Aaron is intent on preserving Sherry-Lehmann's charm. He has hired an architect to revamp the new space and plans to recreate the classic wood paneling from the old store.

While Mr. Aaron maintained a five-year lease with Vornado Realty Trust that would have allowed him to stay at the store's flagship location at 679 Madison Avenue, he found a new location so close to the existing store that he decided to make the move sooner.

Mr. Aaron said that he hopes to complete the move in a weekend, closing the store for only one Saturday. He said he doesn't plan to hold any special sales to reduce inventory before the move.

Sherry-Lehmann was founded as Sherry Wine and Spirits Company in 1934 by Jack Aaron, who was a supplier of spirits during prohibition. The store, which moved twice along Madison Avenue during the 1930s before settling into its present location, has grown into one of New York's most successful wine retailers, making its name on Bordeaux futures campaigns. Sherry-Lehmann reportedly reached about $50 million in sales during last fiscal year and was recently rated the best wine retailer in America by readers of Decanter Magazine.

Mr. Aaron, who in a phone interview yesterday reminisced about flagging down customers as a 7-year-old from the window of the current Sherry-Lehmann, expressed some concerns about the move.

"I thought negotiating the lease was difficult, but now I have to get the building codes passed." Mr. Aaron said. "Who knows what's going to be next?"

The new location will provide about 2,000 square feet of office space for Sherry-Lehmann's customer service and accounting departments, Mr. Aaron said. About 80% of Sherry-Lehmann's wine sales come from Web, phone, and mail orders, a source said.

Sherry-Lehmann's new location will have a 4,000 square foot cellar that will provide 2,000 square feet of wine storage, allowing the company to store more wine on site.

To fill the space, Sherry-Lehmann will move its entire inventory from Madison Avenue as well as bring wine from its 65,000 square foot warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

"It's going to be more efficient during the holidays when we usually hold about $16 million or $17 million in inventory," Mr. Aaron said.

The second floor will have 2,000 square feet set aside for a wine education program, where Sherry-Lehmann will hold classes taught by Kevin Zraly. Mr. Zraly has written several respected books on wine and was the founder of the Windows on the World Wine School that closed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Last year, holiday sales were marred by the transit strike as shoppers were unable to reach the store, Mr. Aaron said. This holiday season, however, Sherry-Lehmann is experiencing double-digit growth in Champagne sales and expects huge sales in the Bordeaux and Burgundy categories.