Toys R Us Closes Times Square Flagship Store
Posted on December 31, 2015
Toys R Us has closed its Times Square flagship store. The retailer waited until just after the 2015 holiday shopping season to close the popular location. The toy retailer has cited high rents for the closing of this location as well as the closing of the F.A.O Schwarz store earlier this year.
The enormous store has 110,000-square-feet of retail space. It also contains an animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, indoor Ferris wheel, life-size Barbie dollhouse and other unique features.
A New York Times report says Toys R Us was paying about half the market rate for the location. Gap Inc. will be opening Gap and Old Navy stores in the space that will take up about 60% of the space Toys R Us was using.
C. Bradley Mendelson, a vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, which leases the space for Bow Tie Partners, told the Times, "A store that size would get a reasonable discount, but it's still too much money for any one store to pay. No one can afford that much space in Times Square today."
Toys R Us is reportedly looking for less expensive space in Manhattan where it can open a new store.