Shoe designer Jimmy Choo has inked a lease for temporary penthouse space at 681 Fifth Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The 7,636-square-foot penthouse space will be used as a showroom for Jimmy Choo’s upcoming Cruise 2013 line of fancy shoes and accessories.

Jimmy Choo will be joining Belstaff, a luxury retailer that moved into 681 Fifth Avenue last year, as a fellow fashion tenant.

A Cushman & Wakefield team of Bruce Mosler, Cynthia Foster, Mark Mandell, Ethan Silverstein and Ashlea Aaron represented Metropole, the owner of 681 Fifth Avenue. Asking rent for the penthouse space is $115-a-square-foot.

In a statement, Jimmy Choo USA chief executive Brian Henke said the penthouse showroom fit its plans to unveil its latest line of shoes in a unique space.

“Metropole created a hotel-like experience for our clients,” said Mr. Henke in a prepared statement. “As they enter the jewel box lobby at 681 Fifth Avenue they are greeted by uniformed doormen and a concierge. Once they enter our showroom Jimmy Choo’s products are displayed against the spectacular backdrop of Central Park and views of the gardens and flags at Rockefeller Center. It is truly a unique, inspiring space with soaring ceilings and filled with natural light.”

After Belstaff took three floors for a total of 17,505 square feet last fall, Peregrine Financial Group, Altum Capital Management and Apex Bulk Carriers signed leases in the building, leaving the duplex penthouse space as the lone availability at 681 Fifth Avenue.

“The space we have been marketing is pretty dramatic,” Mr. Mandell told The Commercial Observer.

While the space has been marketed to a broad spectrum of potential users--including fashion and showroom tenants and hedge funds-- the penthouse’s Central Park views and outdoor space make it a potential new office for any user.

“We’ve had a lot of media-tech tenants that seem to be gravitating to the fact that the ceiling heights are great,” he said. “It’s a ‘wow’ space.”

The penthouse features an atrium that is 30-feet high and 15-feet-wide windows that offer views of Fifth Avenue and Central Park.

As ownership searched for a permanent tenant, the Cushman & Wakefield team took a page out of colleague Alan Schmerzler’s book with his handling of the retail space at 1095 Avenue of the Americas. In March, to help market the 36,000 retail space in the Bryant Park office building, Mr. Schmerzler struck a deal with the National Football League for a pop-up store.

Metropole spent $20 million renovating the 95,074-square-foot building, using architectural firm McKim, Meade & White to spruce up the former home of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Renovations were completed in 2010.

To help push the building’s “boutique office” feel, ownership offers concierge service, doormen, and “white-glove service.”

Daniel Edward Rosen is reachable at drosen@observer.com

The city is set to release a long-awaited report that will detail energy consumption in both commercial and residential buildings, and those involved in drafting the study said it will contain some shocking conclusions--namely, that new office buildings may not be as efficient as developers claim.

“New office buildings, in some cases, are not as efficient as a lot of people might think,” Constantine Kontokosta, director of the Center for the Sustainable Built Environment at New York University, told The Commercial Observer.

Mr. Kontokosta was a key figure in helping the city analyze vast troves of energy consumption data to put the report together.

“What we’re finding is that the older buildings are actually more efficient,” Mr. Kontokosta added. “It could be due to a number of factors, the large masonry walls that these older properties tend to have and the fact that they often have less glass. Glass curtain wall buildings have less insulation value.”

Mr. Kontokosta warned that the city was still working some of the kinks out of its data. One of the most difficult task he said was breaking all the consumption figures down in such a way that buildings could be compared side by side. The difficulties stemmed, he said, from several factors, including the way office building owners report square footage according to different measures. Landlords often inflate the size of their building in order to essentially command higher rents, a practice that can distort a building’s reported square footage.

“It’s challenging to get all the right information,” Mr. Kontakosta said. “I think the uniformity is the key here.”

The city is hoping that by making energy consumption transparent, both landlords and tenants will feel compelled to reduce consumption and become more efficient.

For now, however, the report doesn’t name names.

“No specific buildings will be listed in the report,” Mr. Konstakosta said.

He said the study could be released by next week.

Daniel Geiger is reachable at dgeiger@observer.com