Toy Center signs 37 new leases at landmark complex.

Committed to new initiatives to expand the base of its buying opportunities with an emphasis on consumer products companies, The International Toy Center (ITC) signed 37 companies to new leases at its landmark complex at 200 Fifth Avenue and 1107 Broadway in 2003.

The leases were completed both in-house and through brokerage firms and total more than 109,000 square feet of space.

The ITC is widely known as the worldwide focal point for the children's entertainment industry.

Next month 40,000 representatives from the world's leading retailers, manufacturers and media outlets will pass through its doors during the American International Toy Fair [TM], February 12-18, 2004, a Toy Industry Association event and the largest children's entertainment trade show in the Western hemisphere.

Restaurateur Cipriani U.S.A., Fidelity Investments and the Adventure Publishing Group head the list of new, "non industry" tenants to join the ITC, a W&H Property.

Cipriani signed a long-term, 20-year lease for more than 22,000 square feet to open their newest location in Manhattan in early 2004.

Fidelity, a global leader in providing financial services, will occupy more than 5,300 square feet at street level at the heavily trafficked corner of 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue.

Adventure Publishing is the toy trade's leading publisher with titles including The Toy Book, The Licensing Book, and Toy Wishes Magazine.

Leap Frog Enterprises, MGA Entertainment and Spin Master Ltd. of Toronto, Canada were among the industry leaders taking new space at the ITC.

With over one million square feet of showroom space, the ITC is the longtime home to the $25 Billion children's entertainment industry and is the world's only 365 day a year mart dedicated to this industry.

Under the direction of Cushman & Wakefield, its managing agent, the ITC will continue to pursue juvenile, interactive electronic, publishing and Halloween seasonal products companies as well.

There are many reasons for the ITC's desirability. The most important one is location, location, location--the ITC complex stretches from 23rd Street to 25th Street where Fifth Avenue and Broadway converge, is across the street from Madison Square Park and diagonal from the Flatiron Building.

Then there's the property itself. Among the reasons Cipriani chose to open its newest location here was the ITC's distinctive architecture. Opened in 1909, 200 Fifth Avenue features a marble walled, 19-foot-9-inch high lobby with bronze doors and brass trim throughout with a unique architecturally designed rotunda with terrazzo floor.

For Adventure Publishing it was the logistics of having its home offices where the activity of the industry it covers takes place; for the traditional toy companies it is the ITC's international reputation as "the place to be."

The ITC is the only trade building that caters to the toy and related industries 365 days a year.