Rendering of revamped Times Square

The $40 million Times Square upgrade will begin this fall, according to a new timetable released by the city cited by DNAinfo, and will be complete this fall. The project will make the pedestrian plazas and benches along Seventh Avenue and Broadway permanent, add electrical outlets and repave the roads with a mosaic design embedded in the concrete. All the while, a 15-foot wide path will be open to pedestrians, two lanes will be open to vehicular traffic, the annual New Year’s festivities will go on as planned and access to all buildings will be maintained. [more]

The Elk Hotel, at 360 West 42nd Street

The Elk Hotel, a living landmark to the Times Square of old, at 360 West 42nd Street, at Eighth Avenue, will be closing its doors permanently, the blog Vanishing New York reported.

The seedy hotel, reported in a 2004 New York Times article to have fine accomodations “other than the mice, the hookers and the transvestites,” is a relic of a bygone era in some ways. [more]

Seymour DurstFrom the December issue: Thirty-eight years ago this month, developer Seymour Durst acknowledged that his lenders had begun foreclosing on about a dozen of his painstakingly acquired sites in Midtown, just east of Times Square.

Durst had purchased or taken control of 30 or more parcels between Broadway and Sixth Avenue and 42nd and 46th streets, with the plan to construct a massive commercial project to rival Rockefeller Center.

But with about 20 million square feet of office space available in the weak Manhattan market, he said he didn’t expect sufficient demand for years to justify the development. And holding on to the parcels was draining profits from his earlier successes on Third Avenue, he said.

“I can’t see any new commercial development,” Durst told the New York Times in 1973. Click here for more from this month in real estate history. Compiled by Adam Pincus [more]

Drag club Lucky Cheng’s will relocate from its long-time East Village digs at 24 First Avenue to the Times Square area, the New York Times reported.

The beloved destination is taking a spot on 52nd street, but the exact address was not available because the lease has not been signed yet, the Times said.

Owner Hayne Suthon said the reason for the move was to court tourist dollars.  “The phone used to ring off the hook, but as Times Square became a magnet for tourists — we just can’t get them down here,” said Suthon. “We’ve tried back flips, standing on our heads; they want to stay up there now.”
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The Pabst HotelFrom the November issue: Workers began what is considered to be the nation’s first demolition of a building constructed using the revolutionary steel-frame system 109 years ago this month, when they started dismantling the nine-story Pabst Hotel to make way for the New York Times headquarters.
Skeptics of the steel-frame engineering — which first came into use in the mid-1880s, leading to the proliferation of skyscrapers — thought buildings’ support structure would rust or weaken over time. “In the minds of a great many people the impression is firmly implanted that the steel frame will continue in use until a ‘skyscraper’ collapses in a pile of rubbish and a cloud of dust” as a result of corrosion, a writer in the Times wrote that year.
The deconstruction of the Pabst building at the intersection of 42nd Street, Broadway and Seventh Avenue gave developers the first chance to see the impact on a steel building over time. Click here for more real estate history. Compiled by Adam Pincus [more]

The future of Times Square?

Consumer-focused Internet firms like Google and Amazon that have a limited retail presence might be the next type of company to take retail space in the bustling Times Square area which in recent years has seen growth of apparel tenants like American Eagle and Forever 21. “Theoretically, at some point, I envision brands like Google, like Amazon — large brands that don’t necessarily have a brick and mortar presence,” opening stores in Times Square, David LaPierre, an executive vice president at CBRE, said. “There are a lot of groups out there that predominantly survive on a wholesale business and at some point are going to get it together and figure out how to [sell] retail.” [more]

Under the proposal for a permanent redesign of Times Square, the ground surface of the pedestrian plazas would be made from two tones of dark concrete pavers, leveling the surfaces across the space from 42nd to 47th streets to create a continuous pedestrian thoroughfare, DNAinfo reported.

“We want to remove the ups and downs and make it simpler and flatter,” said Craig Dykers, an architect with Snohetta Design, who presented the plans to members of Midtown Community Board 5’s Transportation Committee. [more]

The city has issued a request for proposals seeking vendors for its new pedestrian plazas in Times Square. According to the Post, the city will grant contracts to as many as five concessions which, beginning this summer, would take orders and serve food — and potentially alcohol — within the cordoned-off area. Don’t look for a Shake Shack Madison Square Park-type operation though: permanent, full-service restaurants are not on the menu for Times Square so far. But according to Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, the plans are subject to change. “This is an experiment,” Tompkins said. “We want to see what ideas people have.” [more]

Bethesda, Md.-based hotel owner DiamondRock Hospitality is set to purchase a partially completed hotel on West 42nd Street in Times Square, according to the Associated Press. The site, which is being developed by Highgate Hotels Holdings, is reportedly being sold for between $112.5 million and $135 million. The final purchase price will be determined by the number of rooms the hotel is given approval to construct — it’s currently slated to include 250 to 300 rooms, but could have as many as 400. Construction is expected to be complete in roughly two years, with a 2013 opening expected. The site’s exact address was not immediately clear. TRD [more]

People will have ample opportunity to shop at Toys “R” Us this holiday season, whether at one of the stores with its extended holiday hours or at one of the Toys “R” Us express stores.

In September, the company announced plans to operate approximately 600 express stores nationwide during the 2010-2011 Christmas season, to join their existing 587 full-size stores. The rollout of pop-up stores — which occupy approximately 4,000 square feet — represents an additional 2.4 million square feet of toy-selling space for the holiday season.

Last year, Toys “R” Us opened its first pop-up stores with nearly 90 express locations across the country, and kept 30 of those opened after seeing positive sales and traffic numbers. [more]