Turning the Page on a Newspaper’s Former Heaquarters

The owners of the former headquarters of the New York Times are planning to transform garages that many years ago housed printing presses into cafés and clothing stores, and to revive the façade with signs, a new five-story clock, and a series of mirrors to reflect the lights of Times Square.Africa Israel USA bought the 18-story building at 229 W. 43rd St. last year for $525 million from Tishman Speyer, which had purchased it from the New York Times in 2004 for $175 million. The newspaper relocated to 620 Eighth Ave. last year.The new owner is calling it the Times Square Building, and is in the beginning phases of transforming the historic property into 600,000 square feet of modern offices and 200,000 square feet of retail space.While the front of the building, at 43rd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, is landmarked and will maintain the recognizable New York Times clock, the back side of the building, at 44th Street, will be completely revamped.“The 43rd Street side is a good space for very exclusive restaurants and specialty retail,” Joshua Strauss, a managing director at Robert K. Futterman & Associates, which is heading up the retail leasing for the space, said. “On the 44th Street side, we are thinking of a big-box tenant or something with an entertainment side.”Africa Israel USA plans to open the ground floor and second floor retail space on West 44th Street by installing large windows, and it has sent marketing materials to T.J. Maxx, Target, and Century 21, Mr. Strauss said.The building’s two facades are being designed by Gensler Associates.The West 43rd Street side “will have an elaborate lobby for the office building and a historic façade,” a design principal working on the project, Lance Boge, said. “The design and retail will be working within those parameters.”On Shubert Alley, as West 44th Street is known, there will be more dramatic changes.“We really want to activate the dead side of Shubert Alley,” Mr. Boge said. “It was sort of a back street, a late addition with no character.”Gensler has designed a series of perpendicular mirrors that would reflect light from Times Square onto the street, as well as a five- or six-story backlit, crushed-aluminum clock, Mr. Boge said.“What we wanted to do is use the mirrors, not literally to pull a picture of Times Square, but the reflective colors of it,” he said. “We believe it will be a distinctive façade experience that is very different than anywhere else in the city.”They are also examining ways to enliven the “bland brick” of the West 44th Street side, including covering it in metal panels that form a design.The chief executive of Africa Israel USA, Rotem Rosen, said many large retail tenants have begun inquiring about the space.“This will be a space where people can stop in before work and come to relax during their lunch break,” he said. “It will be one of the first of its kind in the area.”Africa Israel USA will be relocating its headquarters to the building.

Turning the Page on a Newspaper’s Former Heaquarters

Turning the Page on a Newspaper’s Former Heaquarters

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