Durst’s 4 Times Square to get blinged up

Clothing retailer H&M is set to bring some major bling to the Durst Organization’s 4 Times Square, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Swedish retailing giant is preparing four illuminated “H&M” panels that will be installed atop the 48-story building at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue and will complement its 42,500-square-foot under-construction retail space. The signs – measuring 70 feet by 70 feet — are likely to upstage every other corporate logo on a Manhattan skyscraper, according to the newspaper.

“They certainly understood the value of skyline signage,” Tom Bow, director of leasing at Durst, told the Journal. “The views and the eyeballs on the skyline are going to be tremendous.”

H&M is eager to “be a part of the excitement and history of Times Square and have a spot on Manhattan’s iconic skyline,” a company spokesperson told the Journal.

The H&M lease and signage deal – which closed last October — was big news for Durst, which had struggled to find takers for the signage when the property was first built in 2000. Though both Bow and H&M declined to comment on the price of the sign, Bow told the newspaper it was “comparable” to rent for signage at the tower’s base, which can pull in millions of dollars annually. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani