Toy Center 'close' to deal for a new home.The New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. toy industry, which is being displaced displaced see displacement. from its current home at 200 Fifth Avenue because of a condo conversion Generally stated, a condo conversion is a process of entitling an income property or other lands currently held under one title to convert from sole ownership of the entire property (which often already is a multi unit property) into individual for sale units. there by owners, the Chetrit brothers, is getting closer to finding a new city location in which to assemble its tenants sources say. Steven Greenfield Greenfield, town (1990 pop. 18,666), seat of Franklin co., NW Mass., at the confluence of the Deerfield and Green rivers, near their junction with the Connecticut; settled 1686, set off from Deerfield and inc. 1753. , a tenant at 200 Fifth Avenue and one of the leaders of an organization representing toy tenants in their search for a new home, said that the industry's broker, Barry Gosin, of Newmark, is in talks with a number of landlords for space in close proximity to Javits Center--where the toy industry holds its biggest expo every February. In order to accommodate its requirement for more than 350,000 s/f, the industry may need to rent space in two buildings rather than one. "We're looking at several options right now," Greenfield said. "While ideally we'd all want to be in one building together like we were at the International Toy Center, a two building concept is something that we're considering." The industry's progress comes after good news from the Toy Industry Association The Toy Industry Association, Inc. (TIA) is the not-for-profit trade association for producers and importers of toys and youth entertainment products sold in North America, representing over 500 companies who account for approximately 85% of domestic toy sales. , which just announced that it would keep the February show in Manhattan "now and in the foreseeable future." The TIA (1) (Telecommunications Industry Association, Arlington, VA, www.tiaonline.org) A membership organization founded in 1988 that sets telecommunications standards worldwide. It was originally an EIA working group that was spun off and merged with the U.S. had been considering moving the annual show to Dallas or another venue, a move that would have dealt a major blow to the industry's future in the city. The industry's future in the city became uncertain in recent months also as a result of its highly publicized pub·li·cize tr.v. pub·li·cized, pub·li·ciz·ing, pub·li·ciz·es To give publicity to. Adj. 1. publicized - made known; especially made widely known publicised struggles to find replacement space. After considering a number of buildings, including the Chetrit brothers' 450 West 33rd Street, the TIA issued a release in November 2005 that it had reached a deal to take 400,000 s/f at 100 Church Street. That space grab ended in controversy when, little more than a week later, the deal fell apart amid toy tenant concerns that the building was too far from Javits. "It's very difficult for us because a lot of the class B and C space that would have been good for us has been lost to residential conversion," Greenfield said. "But I feel like we're close to something that will work now." |
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