Times Square as entertainment center

[alex ballard]

While Times Sq rocks, I think it still needs a boost as an entertainment center. I think something like a Dave&Busters, an Interactive Disney Center, and other ride/games centers would help make Times Sq a excellent center for fun and for kids!

[BrooklynRider]

As far as entertainment, I think it needs more live venues like BB Kings and it lacks adult (i.e. over age 30) night clubs, which could do quite well with the theater crowd.

I'd hate to see a Dave & Busters. It is such a suburban mall kind of place. We need to get away from recreating the Mall of America on 42nd Street. On the other hand, the two arcades that did open - Bar Code and Broadway City - were pretty impressive design-wise and occupied huge spaces. They didn't survive very long. Bar Code was too expensive and tried to be too exclusive. Broadway City was rather popular and drew a crowd, but it couldn't over come bad press from a single incident of gun violence and a post 911 decline in business. Broadway City was very nice.

Noche Dance Hall, which opened in David Copperfield's failed restaurant space, lasted about a year. It looked nice from the street, but I know no one who ever went there. The WWF restaurant was a huge flop - taking the space that was originally planned as a NYC House of Blues. W Times Square occupies a hotel building originally planned as a Planet Hollywood Hotel (failed). The All-Star Cafe - a space I found superior to ESPN Zone failed (it is now Planet Hollywood). We'll see how a the Paramount Hotel fairs now that it has been sold to another entertainment group ready to re-christen it into theme land.

It seems the latest place to take a stab at Times Square style entertainment is Tonic. The problem is that city residents go to Times Square for theater or movies - not nightlife. All of these places are totally dependent upon tourist dollars and all of these places have to charge exhorbitant prices due to high rents. With the majority of tourists being of the domestic variety these days, TGI Fridays and Applebees are booming, while more sophisticated and nuanced places tank.

It is interesting to watch. Ninth Ave is booming as the restaurant row for NYC residents attending theater, while Bubba Gumps, Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Fridays had long lines out the doors during Christmas tourista season.

[krulltime]

I though that Noche Dance Hall close because they are in an old building that just sold recently and it is going to be demolish to built a new residential tower... am I right about this?

[billyblancoNYC]

There are two major live performance venues coming...Hard Rock and one from another concert company from LA. Also, talk has seemed to be revived for a House of Blues. In addition, Ecko clothing is opening a major store and entertainment venue are well.

We'll see what happens, I guess, but I think some of it has a good shot. I would like to see more of this in TS, and less chain stores.

[Schadenfrau]

I'd be happy to see Times Square swing towards the less child-centric side of things.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Yay!

[BigMac]

New York Post
July 31, 2005

PEPSI EYES TIMES SQ. FOR BRAND MUSEUM

By BRADEN KEIL

http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/Jen%20Chung/2005_08_pepsmus.jpg

EXCLUSIVE

Pepsi-Cola is weighing a deal to turn One Times Square into a corporate brand museum, The Post has learned.

The famous building — where the crystal ball descends as Midnight approaches each New Year's Eve — would become a marketing billboard for the soft drink brand, inside and out, sources said.

Listing broker of the building, Jeffrey Roseman of Newmark, had no comment about any ongoing negotiations, but says he sees more mainstream companies wanting in on the coveted corridor to get their names out there.

"Times Square is a branding phenomenon," Roseman says. "Where else can you put up a billboard sign where millions of people around the world will see it at once, especially if your brand is all over the building.

Under the deal, Pepsi, or any other company that might ink the deal, would get control over four, large exterior screens.

GM is also said to be sniffing around for a brand museum, in the spirit of the Hershey's Midtown store, which has plenty of exterior signage to promote the brand.

In marketing materials for One Times Square, the panels are marked with an X (see above).

One Times Square, which hasn't had a tenant since Warner Bros. vacated the space a few years ago, is still a profitable venture with its well-placed billboards, touting such products as the Discover card, and the NBC "jumbotron" that costs millions of dollars to rent annually.

Control of those two signs are not included in the deal.

Only the first three floors, which can be used as retail stores, are not covered in billboards

Rent on the entire structure, plus the four outdoor signs will run approximately $4.5 million per year.

Copyright 2005 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[NewYorkYankee]

Even the inside dosnt have a commcercial tenent? What do those signs up for sale have displayed on them now?

[BrooklynRider]

Wow! Pepsi coming back is great. They used to occupy those heights pre revitalization. It was TDK and Pepsi to the south, Coke to the North and that great Canon sign on top of HoJos.

As for entertainment, I think the challenge is finding a decent rent that makes entertainment venues sustainable. Broadway City and Bar Code were really quite nice places. BB Kings is doing great because it is a decent size and books acts that appeal to a broad range of audience. The new Nokia Theater will be a performing arts (concert) space in the old Astor Theater. House of Blues was the original tenant for the space Hard Rock is moving into (formerly WWF Restaurant). It is a performance space excavated out from under the Paramount building. Noche closeed for business reasons. It remains standing. That building was built to house David Copperfield's "magic themed" restaurant. It became a money pit and that three-story structure's costs ballooned to something like $41M before the plug was pulled. The city needs beer gardens / halls and live performabce space for established and new bands. CBGB should move to Times Square of Coney Island.

[stache]

New York Post
July 31, 2005

PEPSI EYES TIMES SQ. FOR BRAND MUSEUM



Pepsi-Cola is weighing a deal to turn One Times Square into a corporate brand museum, The Post has learned.


Under the deal, Pepsi, or any other company that might ink the deal, would get control over four, large exterior screens.



Hopefully, giant images of Joan Crawford will come to dominate Times Square yet again!