Deuce loses juice.
In the newest failure of the cheerfully lit block of West forty second Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, construction of the enduring, long-dark Times Square Theater has come to a halt, which is being redesigned and expanded for business or entertainment purposes.
The Stillman International Development project will not be dead, it just hit the pause button. But the delay could portend one other disappointment on the colonnaded, limestone-façade site that has served as a live theater and cinema for many of its 102 years.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, large storefronts that after housed BB King’s Blues Club and the town’s largest McDonald’s stand empty. Crowds still flock to The Lion King and Madame Tussauds, but many other sites remain open for rent.
Stillman and the nonprofit New forty second Street, which oversees the block’s historic theaters, announced the newest plan for the cursed venue at 215 W. forty second St. almost five years ago.
But as with so many similar premature boasts, it seems that the completion of the redevelopment widely reported within the press depends first on finding a tenant before any major construction is accomplished.
The Times Square Theater is slated to have two additional floors upstairs and a dramatic glass box suspended on cantilevers over the forty second Street sidewalk.
Powerhouse Colliers broker Bradley Mendelson, who had previously lured several major tenants to the positioning only to see them back out of their leases, confirmed what we suspected based on our observations.
“Work will begin as soon as now we have a tenant,” Mendelson said. “They don’t need to do anything that may require undoing.”
He stressed, “Stillman continues to be within the deal.”
He said it could take one other yr for the work to be accomplished once the tenant signed the contract and outlined their requirements.
The online post says the “restored, historically significant constructing” may have 41,500 square feet of “dynamic tiered retail/entertainment/restaurant/space”, a “massive glass display” and an out of doors terrace on the fourth floor.
A lease – technically a sublease – is obtainable for 15 years or more.
In June 2019, we reported that based on the town’s Department of Finance, Stillman and his partner, South Korean firm Daishin Securities, were paying $15.8 million in rent over 73 years, including two renewal options.
Previous would-be rescuers include designer Marc Ecko, who left the lease after five years of doing nothing with the space, and a dubious enterprise called Broadway 4D, which was speculated to be a musical attraction run by top Hollywood stars.
