Crazy to me that not even Toys R Us can afford rent there. Manhattan is going to be full of nothing but banks, luxury condos & discount clothing stores soon.

Well, it's greed. The Gap will take half the space and the other half will be vacant for years. It's better to have a tenant than an empty space. Look how many years the former Borders on 33rd and 7th next to MSG stood vacant. 6 by my count.

I have a friend who was forced out of his retail operation owing to an unaffordable rent hike.

That was two years ago. Nobody else has rented in the interim and it's just sitting there vacant.

Some real estate holding companies can I guess afford to just sit on properties until a sufficiently moneyed tenant comes along.

"Warehousing," is the term, I gather. but that's more a residential thing?

Gimbel's, Wanamakers, Alexanders, B Altman, and innumerable other retailers no longer have Manhattan locations. Retail succession is hardly a new phenomenon.

The whole Gimbel's chain went under along with B.Altman and Alexanders as did Mays, S.Kleins, Daffys and recently Conways. Wanamakers is now operated by Macy's in Philly but burned down in NYC in the 1950s. This is a different trend now in New York, This is a trend towards the stores which still have relatively successful presence in other cities and malls are now being forced to fold up and are not being replaced. The idea of ordering everything online is absurd as who can tell if it fits or the material is of good quality or if it's a scented product, how does it smell? More work to return it and very disappointing. A possible solution: Go to New Jersey or Westchester or LI to buy items or even an outer borough since Manhattan has way less retail than they used to have and at heftier prices than other locations.

I hate to break it to you, but Gimbel's hasn't existed anywhere since 1987.

I've gotten over my loss. Also Korvette's, Bonwit Teller, and all the others. The point is retailers open, close, merge all the time. Borders and B&N outcompeted small book stores. Amazon outcompeted big box book stores. Circle of Life.

LOL Korvette's.

Toys is something that needs to be felt in hand before making a purchase. Even with the advent of Youtube and Amazon, kids need to see the goods and get excited before begging their parents to buy it. That's ok, Toy R Us is relocating to NJ where the sales taxes are lower and plenty of land for cheap. So get ready to take the NJ Transit to the Meadowlands. Soon, NYC will have nothing but Starbucks, Chipotles, and Shake Shacks.

actually... http://ny.eater.com/2015/3/...

! Very apt link.

I guess we're starting to see a wave recede. I wonder what it will uncover.

The only issue is who really buys toys these days? Most of my friends kids use their parents phones or tablets.

Obviously you never watched EvansTube. Kids watch toy reviews on Youtube then beg their parents to buy them the toys.

We will never forgive Obama for this.

I bet Rite-Aid pharmacy leases it and transforms it into a flagship store to compete with the nearby Walgreens flagship store that's already in Times Square..

Rite Aid is merging with Walgreens, so there goes that option.

Being bought isn't the same as merging.

I am on team CVS - forget the rest - CVS! Ok, now you owe me for marketing song jingles.

I think Toys R Us felt the heat of eToys back then and said...we better do something drastic to keep us in business and decided to rent this spot.

Na its for the people that lives in other countries that will buy the spaces and tell Americans what to do. While we continue to go broke.

those are some grimey looking tourists who are hunkered down at toys r us

Probably the only shoppers left on the last day of business are local scavengers.

EBay scroungers. Same people who buy up black Friday deals and every product launch just to flip it online for a huge profit. It's pathetic.

All the good stuff is trucked, nothing left over are worth anything.

Wow, big box store pushed out of flagship location by market forces.

Gentrifier gentrified.

This makes no practical difference to me since, even though I work right next to Times Square, I avoid it all costs (naturally). But I wonder if this event will be seen as a herald of some kind of change where the city comes to be seen as a less desirable place to live.

*fingers crossed*

Seriously. When enormous corporate entities decide it's too pricy, you know something's screwed with 'market rates'.

Exactly. When the Carnegie Deli can't make ends meet without bypassing the gas meter you know things are messed up.

I agree. But one possible scenario is that this sort of thing becomes increasingly common, to the point where the perception of this place changes. Do I think that's going to happen, realistically? No.

No its the largest retail space in the most desired location and shrinking margins from inflation and stagnant wages. Socialism at work.

"The market has just escalated so."

Dear me! That's ever so unfortunate, Mr. Solicitor!

NYC is quickly turning into Dubai. What happens when only millionaires, billionaires and banks can afford to survive? Independent businesses and residents are being pushed out.

Yes, gentrification is the new colonialism.

Just like that time the Belgians took control of the Congo and through the forced labor of its inhabitants extracted immense resource wealth, potentially killing up to 20 million people in the process.

It's not like their lives are any better now after the Belgians left. It's one dictator after another, civil wars, human rights violations. All they've done is traded one devil with another.

Fortunately there are only ~2 million people here to exploit. I can't wait till a studio in LES is $5K/month and you have to drive to Poughkeepsie to do laundry.

The reason chain stores proliferate in NYC is they're the ones who can afford the rents, obvs. So even if the store in Manhattan isn't actually profitable, it's made up for by all the stores in Omaha and whatnot - PLUS the chain enjoys the glamour and prestige associated with the address.

This idea was presented somewhere, I forget, as the reason for the insane number of retail banks and ATM kiosks we have everywhere: that they essentially are, and principally operate as, advertisements for their brand, rather than for their ostensible purpose.

This is all part of why this doesn't seem like a city anymore, in the way that it used to. It's like one huge marketing experiment.

So when a giant like this one tumbles, you have to wonder what's next. Hopefully some sort of renaissance of non-corporate culture...?

Probably true. What do you think about the proliferation of bank branches and bank-branded ATM mini-lobbies? Profitable or just glorified signs?

First FAO Shwartz now this. I can't wait for the Apple store to be priced out of its rent.

Speaking of Apple, I have a sneaky suspicion that they're actually moving into the area, taking over the old Mars 2112 space. They've sealed off the lower level from the street and have the frame for a giant cube above ground.

Fight Big Apple!

I heard a rumor that FAO Schwarz/Toys R Us was moving there.

You know who bought FAO, right? These guys.

Nonsence, apple can easily buy the building, besides they already have some across the globe so NY is a joke.

A strip of two-story buildings in the middle of Times Square? That whole block is ripe for redevelopment. Why hasn't anyone torn those down yet.

The biggest irony is that Toys R Us was probably the number 1 reason that Times Square became the way it is today from the Giuliani years. They are the patient zero.

I look forward to the two-story peep show bar that will take its place.

Yes, the new Mall of America being built in Meadowlands NJ is where Toys R Us is moving to along with many other stores. I suspect NJ Transit will jack up fares even higher next year when tourists flock to the new Mall of America instead of going to Times Square.