IT’S taken more than 20 years, but the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street is finally getting a retail presence worthy of the city’s most famous shopping boulevard.

Youth-oriented Swedish sportswear chain H&M just signed a lease for 25,000 square feet at 505 Fifth Ave., the gleaming new boutique office tower developed on spec by Dr. Axel Stawski. The three-level store, H&M’s tenth in Manhattan, will open by next spring.

H&M was represented by CB Richard Ellis’ Robert Gibson and Jedd Nero and Stawski by Robert K. Futterman.

Most of the project’s 300,000 square feet of office space have been leased to CIT, but Fifth Avenue is most famed as a shopping street – and the retail site had been frustratingly under-used or totally derelict since at least the 1980s.

For as long as anyone could remember, the seemingly jinxed northeast corner of 42nd and Fifth seemed like a black hole into which the avenue’s numerous junk stores and cheap delis south of Saks seemed to drain. A Japanese landlord bulldozed several historic, low-rise buildings on the site in the early 1990s and left it a vacant lot for several years.

A ramshackle flea market popped up, cheapening the prominent corner across from the New York Public Library. The property changed hands several times, but remained a mess until Stawski bought it from LCOR and Lehman Bros. in 2002 and redeveloped the location in time to catch the current leasing boom.

But the H&M deal was a long time in coming. Futterman said there was a deal with “another possible tenant, which didn’t happen” but took the space off the market for months. Futterman wouldn’t say who, but marketplace sources said it was the government of Thailand, which considered opening a “Takashimaya-like” store to showcase national products.

After the negotiation went nowhere, H&M made “a strategic move” to showcase its brand at a Fifth Avenue location in addition to the one they have at 640 Fifth (51st Street), Futterman said.

“They were interested for about a year, but deals take a long time in New York now, and this landlord is very particular about the type of tenant he wants.”

CBRE’s Gibson agreed, “Axel hit the market perfectly.” He cited recent improvements to the Fifth Avenue retail scene below 49th Street, including the arrivals of American Girl Place, Build-a-Bear and the big new Barnes & Noble.

Neither Futterman nor Gibson would discuss terms, citing confidentiality agreements. But Lansco retail honcho Alan Victor, who was not involved in the H&M lease, said the asking rent was $350 per square foot for the ground floor, $175 for the second floor and $75 for the basement.

The deal “is definitely going to give a shot in the arm” to the store market between 42nd and 49th streets, Victor said.

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Toyota Tsusho America, Inc., has rented 43,000 square feet at Charles S. Cohen‘s 805 Third Ave., moving from 437 Madison Ave. and 1285 Sixth Ave.

CB Richard Ellis’ Paul Meyers repped the tenant. Toyota Tsusho is an international commodities trading firm involved in supply-chain activities, intermediate goods production and manufacturing-related services.

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The 7-story building at 400 West Broadway, home to high-end jewelers Robert Lee Morris Design, has sold for $8.6 million. The deal was arranged by Eastern Consolidated’s “Ezratty team” – Brian Ezratty, chairman and principal, who represented seller Lloyd Goldman, and his uncle Martin Ezratty, a director of the firm, who brought in buyer Marvin Shulsky.

The building’s floors 2-6 and penthouse are vacant. Martin Ezratty said Shulsky will be able to lease the office floors “at SoHo market rates, which now range between $45 and $55 per square foot.”

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New Jersey-based market research firm Meadowlands Consumer Center has landed its first Manhattan location with a 12,220-square-foot lease at 28 W. 44th St. Cushman & Wakefield’s Alexander Chudnoff and Robert Gallucci repped the tenant.

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Global Advertising Strategies Inc., a consulting, marketing and advertising firm, is moving its Manhattan headquarters to the Rudin family’s 55 Broad St., a.k.a. the N.Y. Information Technology Center. The company is moving from 55 John St.

Global will move into 10,105 square feet, the entire 19th floor, later this year.

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