1115 Broadway a magnet for former ITC tenants.

Rubies, a costume and accessories company whose products can be found come Halloween time on the shelves of Wal-Mart and mom and pop costume shops alike, has greatly expanded its showroom space in Manhattan, taking the entire 9th floor at 1115 Broadway in a lease totaling 23,370 s/f.

The firm previously occupied a roughly 1,300 s/f space at 200 Fifth Avenue, a building that along with neighboring 1107 Broadway once constituted the epicenter of the New York City toy industry but is now in the process of being converted into luxury condos by developer Joe Chetrit.

According to a company source, the dramatic expansion of Rubies' showroom was necessitated by the firm's decision to consolidate a number of its divisions into one location, most notably its sizeable Form Novelties line of costumes, which previously didn't have a Manhattan space

Rubies' move to 1115 Broadway is part of a larger migration to the building in recent years among costume and seasonal products tenants who may have at first simply sought proximity to the Toy Center but, since Chetrit acquired the two building compound in the summer of 2004 and announced his conversion plans, have flocked to the building because it could soon be one of the last locations with a concentration of industry tenants. Important for the costume tenants is the preservation of such proximity to one another so that prospective buyers and retailers can easily stroll from one company showroom to the next during industry shows, a convenience that is created when the bulk of the tenants share the same building.

1115 Broadway has developed such a concentration of toy and costume tenants that the building's title is now the Toys, Halloween & Seasonal Products Center.

"We must have done at least 60,000 s/f of deals so far," said James Buslik, a principal at Adam & Co., the owner and managing agent of 1115 Broadway before the Rubies deal in a conversation with REW in May.

Among the recent leases in the building was a 2,000 s/f deal with Halloween products manufacturer the Febland Group and a 6,200 lease with seasonal products maker The Paper Magic Group in April. Costume company, Disguise, signed a lease for 13,000 s/f last year.

1115 Broadway has also been drawing toy tenants displaced from the Toy Center. Playmobil USA and one of the world's largest board game manufacturers, Cardinal Industries, both of whom were former Toy Center tenants, took recent leases in the building for 1,500 s/f and 1,800 s/f respectively. Toy tenants Funrise, Battat, Plastwood, and GeoMag have all taken space within the last year.

"Altogether, the four of them occupy roughly 30,000 s/f," Buslik said. Over half the fully occupied, 270,000 s/f building is now leased to toy and costume and seasonal products tenants.

The costume and seasonal products industry is closely related to the toy industry in that they both share many of the same buyers, a collection of retailers and wholesalers that run the gamut from small family run toy and costume shops to major retailers like Kmart, Target, and Wal-Mart.

Critical to the marketing and sale of their products are a number of yearly trade shows that the toy industry holds in New York City and in which the costume and seasonal products industry participates.

But the toy industry has not has the same success that the costume and seasonal products industry has had in establishing a new home amid an increasingly tight office market.

The difficult space search has threatened to drive both the toy industry and its large yearly shows out of the city, a move that could put a dent in the costume and seasonal products industry, which no doubt benefits from its relationship with toy industry.

The lease signed by Rubies, which according to Buslik is one of the largest costume companies in the world, conveys a sense that the industry is perhaps ready to tolerate a diminishment of the symbiosis that it had shared with the toy industry should the toy tenants move to another city as some have forecasted they will be forced to do. Indeed, the industry is planning to hold its own show at 1115 Broadway in the coming months.

The bulk of the toy industry has banded together to search for a building in which it can relocate.

It has stated that it is interested in taking more than 300,000 s/f of space an amount that many real estate experts say will give it better leverage with which to negotiate lower rents from landlords than if its many members were to stake out on their own.