Express to open flagship at 1552 Broadway

Clothing retailer Express has ditched the retail space at 4 Times Square for 30,000 square feet at 1552 Broadway, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the company’s earnings call last week, Express CEO Mark Weiss said the retailer had switched its New York flagship to “a more desirable location,” and warned that expenses and delays brought on by the move and the eventual build out would weigh on the retailer’s short-term prosperity. The Journal said Express could be paying more than $20 million per year.

1552 Broadway, which was bought last year by SL Green Realty and Jeff Sutton for $136.5 million, was probably preferred over Durst Organization’s 4 Times Square because it’s closer to the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Broadway, known as the bow tie.

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“Everybody comes to Times Square to see what’s going on in the bow tie,” said Bradley Mendelson, a Cushman & Wakefield retail broker. “Not everybody walks all the way down to 42nd street.”

Express plans to open its store, where T.G.I. Friday is currently located, in the fall of 2013. [WSJ]