Foot Locker is packing up its bags in Manhattan and running off to St. Petersburg, Florida.
The global retailer is relocating its headquarters from the Penn District to the Florida city next year, the New York Business Journal reported. The company already has a presence in the city, which chief executive Mary Dillon referred to as a “meaningful executive and commercial presence” in an earnings call Wednesday.
The company plans to maintain a “limited presence” in New York City, Dillon added, in what may have been a reference to its office space. Foot Locker has dozens of stores across New York, including 15 each in Manhattan and Brooklyn and 12 in the Bronx.
Foot Locker in 2015 had moved its global headquarters from Empire State Realty Trust’s 112 West 34th Street to Vornado Realty Trust’s 330 West 34th Street. The sneakerhead company leased roughly 147,000 square feet in a deal that expires in 2031, according to CoStar.
An executive from Vornado did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Real Deal. The 682,000-square-foot building has eight office vacancies and two retail vacancies, according to a website for the property.
Rumors of the move to St. Petersburg have been around for years. In 2021, the Florida city publicly tried wooing the footwear brand with an incentive package, though the attempt appeared dead in the water a year later.
Foot Locker will be the third Fortune 500 company based in St. Petersburg, following Jabil and Raymond James, and the latest in a line of companies to relocate its headquarters to Florida since the start of the pandemic.
In the first three years after Covid’s arrival, 158 wealth management companies left New York, with 56 going to Florida. Icahn Capital Management, Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel were among those to shift to the Sunshine State.
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Foot Locker moving HQ to Vornado's 330 West 34th Street
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