B&N Out, Century 21 In on Upper West Side

NEW YORK CITY-Just a few days after Barnes & Noble announced it would vacate the Lincoln Center-area store it has occupied at 1972 Broadway since 1995, Century 21 said it was moving in. The discount high-end department store, which has been a Downtown fixture for half a century, will open its second Manhattan location in the 61,000-square-foot space that B&N has slated for a January 2011 closing.

The Century 21 announcement late Wednesday afternoon confirmed rumors that had been circulating since the blog My Upper West ran an unconfirmed report earlier this week. The department store operates six other New York metro area location including the Lower Manhattan site, and plans to take possession of the 1972 Broadway space this coming February, with a fall ’11 grand opening.

"Century 21 presented the landlord with the unique opportunity to replace one New York icon with another New York icon,” says Cushman & Wakefield’s Gene Spiegelman, the sole broker in the transaction, in a release. “The property delivered the required space plan that allowed Century 21 to consider expanding from its Financial District roots.”

Adds Mario Palumbo of Millennium Partners, which developed the property in the early 1990s, “We believe that having Century 21 as an anchor in Lincoln Square will help drive a level of pedestrian traffic that our other retail tenants will benefit from." Spiegelman represented Millennium in the deal.

The retailer’s neighbors along the Lincoln Square shopping corridor on Manhattan’s Upper West Side will include Banana Republic, the Gap, Pottery Barn and Gracious Home. Outside of Manhattan, Century 21 operates stores in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island and two in New Jersey.