SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Times Square buildings continue to one-up each other with ever-brighter LED displays
THEY say the neon lights are bright on Broadway. But for retailers, it’s innovative LED displays that get top billing along the Great White Way.
The LED wars started when One Times Square, also known as the “Ball Drop Building,” plastered new signage over its north façade in 1996.
Some complained the stacked oversized TV screens distracted drivers, but they brought in big bucks: some $12 million a year. Plus, their displays were so easily changeable that they could give any brand or person 15 minutes of fame
— and, indeed, they do.
The website BigSignMessage.com, for example, will rent space on several prominent Times Square billboards from five to 15 minutes or more starting at about $35. But LED screen pricing in the area can skyrocket into the millions for an exclusive billboard. Besides video player capabilities, some screens include livestreaming and interactive effects.
That’s why rather than planning and creating “spectaculars” — like the memorable giant Coke bottle and Camel smoke ring ads of the 20th century — buildings quickly swapped out neon for screens.
Today, that signage and top retailers make Times Square an entertainment mecca in the world’s shopping capital.
With 100 million pedestrians passing through Times Square’s “Bowtie”— the area where Broadway and Seventh Avenue intersect — each year, and shopping hours running past midnight at some locations, retail rents are among the priciest in the world.
Such Times Square rents now range from $1,500 to $2,300 per square foot, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s spring retail report. Compare that with spring 2018, when the spread went from $1,800 to $2,000 per square foot.
But the expensive rents can include access
to those all-important giant lights.
Of course, there have been, well, signs, pointing to the trend of larger and larger billboards.
Back in 2014, Vornado launched “the world’s largest 4K LED screen” on the full block façade of the Marriott Marquis at 1535 Broadway between West 45th and 46th streets.
At six stories high, 330 feet wide and 24 million pixels, the Vornado billboard provides a colorful, everchanging display. It promotes its own retailers, including Sephora, Swatch and Levi’s, as well as marketing materials from a variety of companies willing to pay top dollar.
Up the block, Jeff Sutton leased American Eagle an aerie at 1551 Broadway and then plastered 5,000 square feet of LED signs four stories high above it. Across Times Square at 1500 Broadway, on the southwest corner of West 44th Street, the 3,685-square-foot “ABC Supersign” seen daily on “Good Morning America” is notable for its wavy ribbons and curved tickers.
When the Durst Organization developed 4 Times Square (now known as 151 W. 42nd St.), it added seven stories of LEDs to create the now iconic curved NASDAQ MarketSite sign.
At the southwest corner of Broadway and West 42nd Street, the Thomson Reuters signage at 3 Times Square — which caught fire this past weekend but was quickly extinguished — has 11 LED screens 22 stories high and technology that can integrate full-motion video, simulcast events or social media.
And signs are only getting bigger and brighter.
New York’s Stillman Development International and South Korean financial company Daishin Securities are spending $100 million to redevelop the former Times Square Theatre at 215 W. 42 St. into a 52,000- square-foot retail mecca. Among other upgrades, the theater is being raised 5 feet to create a taller groundfloor retail space. Its six stories will show off a dramatic design by Beyer Blinder Belle architects.
Mixing historic and modern architecture, the structure will include a glass box that cantilevers over 42nd Street as well as a 45foot-high domed penthouse, outdoor spaces, and of course, three LED signs totaling 3,692 square feet.
The building will be ready in 2020. Currently, brokers Bradley Mendelson and David A. Green of Colliers International are targeting a variety of tech brands, entertainment and food.
At 1568 Broadway, on the south side of 47th Street, L&L Holdings, Maefield Development and Fortress Investment Group are at work on the $2.5 billion TSX Broadway, poised to be 46 stories of “immersive experience.”
For now, the developers are demolishing the former Doubletree hotel and preparing the site for the 550,000-square-foot project — the largest in Times Square since the 1980s. To ensure ample vertical retail spaces at the base, the site’s 1,700seat Palace Theatre will be raised an amazing 30 feet higher. A new 669-key hotel — the brand is yet to be decided — will top the theater and shops. TSX’s 110,000-square-foot experiential retail and restaurant podium will be wrapped in a highresolution 18,000-square-foot LED sign. Colorful LEDs will also light up the entire tower. An additional LED sign on the crown of the project will become the highest in the area, giving the project a staggering 22,350 feet of total signage. Additionally, TSX’s Seventh Avenue LED facade will have an opening to integrate a 30-by-30foot stage that will cantilever over the street facing the iconic “Red Steps” of the TKTS booth in Duffy Square. “You can use the stage for a red carpet, show it on the signage, and then host an event,” explained David Orowitz, a senior vice president at L&L who is overseeing TSX’s construction. “You could have an entertainment use, a TED Talk or even put a car up there for branding events.” As construction is not yet underway, the flexible design can still integrate an e-sports “stadium,” a 200-seat theater, a music or television studio or other creative options. Plug-and-play broadcast capabilities are also being built into the entire project, including the hotel, that would enable interviews almost anywhere. Orowitz expects a variety of food options to use the 10,000 square feet of terraces that will wrap the corner, with eateries serving sophisticated fare after dark.
“It’s about lifestyle and luxury,” Orowitz says. The building “is cool and vibrant like Times Square and will encompass what its future will be. We designed it to the highest standards of what the most demanding brands require.”
Earlier this year, across 47th Street to the north, Ian Schrager’s 452-room Edition hotel opened its door sat 20 Times Square aka 701 Seventh Ave. But to generate income and attract eyeballs, its 120-foot tall, 18,000-square-foot LED sign was switched on in 2017, well before its opening.
That sign has 16 million LEDs and 6,500 nits; the latter is not head lice but a brightness measurement to ensure the screen is still highly visible in sunlight.
Developed by the Witkoff Group, New Valley and Maefield Development, 20 Times Square also has a retail podium, which currently includes the nearly 7,000-square-foot Hershey’s Chocolate World.
Some 23,400 square feet (including 120 feet of frontage) on three levels at 20 Times Square is currently being marketed by Andrew Goldberg and Matthew Chmielecki of CBRE.
Along with signage, there’s a 50,000-square-foot terrace above the retail podium that can be used as a stage for marketing and other events.
To compete, One Times Square is now swapping its north signage for one giant 350-foot-tall LED display.
Turns out leaving the lights on has become an economic engine all on its own.