A sign on the Hearst Tower’s storefront indicates that a FedEx-Kinko’s has signed a lease there, more than a year after the building opened.
Office tenants have been moving into the new glass and steel Hearst Tower at 300 West 57th Street Avenue since October 2006, but the large ground-floor retail space had languished until now.
Both Hearst and its leasing agent, Cushman & Wakefield, were not immediately available to disclose the terms of the lease. A FedEx spokesman contacted Friday evening could not immediately provide any information.
“It’s at the crossroads, north of Times Square and south of Lincoln Center, and the retail in that area is more a discount image” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing and sales for Prudential Douglas Elliman. She added that with new developments
coming up west and east of the building, the area is transitioning.
“My other feeling is that they were concentrating on finishing the building and getting everybody upstairs,” Consolo said. “The retail was the last piece of the puzzle.”
Consolo said that it is likely that the space sat without a tenant for so long because the area’s retail market needs more time to establish itself.
“You could just pick up the phone and get a no-name tenant like a deli easily,” Consolo said. “But to get a national or international company that is both a financial and aesthetic fit is a challenge.”