When Bill Marriott broke ground in 1980 for a new hotel on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets, anybody who agreed that his would be the first step in the revitalization of Times Square was declared a wild-eyed optimist.

There is no doubt now that the Times Square renaissance is well underway, even to the point where some died-in-the-wool New Yorkers are decrying the takeover of this Big Apple neighborhood by Corporate America. Yet, the same people who would keep Corporate America out of Times Square brag about it being the Crossroads of the World, which seems to this native New Yorker to be a bit oxymoronic. But then, hey, this is New York.

There is a lot around Times Square that is new, but to somebody who has crisscrossed Broadway and Seventh Avenue and the streets from 40th to 53rd more times than he could count in the past half-century, the most obvious addition to the neighborhood is the kids. They're everywhere! They're clinging to mom's shawl, riding on dad's shoulders, forming hand-in-hand phalanxes six children wide as they stroll down the left side of the sidewalk causing rushing business folk to roll their eyes in exasperation.

There is joy in the kids' eyes and mirth in their chatter on street corners where not long ago the stares were blank, and the talk was of propositions. The neon glares with glee these nights, not the guile of the past, and Mr. Marriott's hotel is one of the most successful on earth. This is Times Square, where lion kings roar, and the beast wins the heart of the fair maiden, where a giant music store is named "Virgin," and the scariest characters are made of wax.

And it's getting better by the day, as plans are made for wider sidewalks, better signage, pay-to-park truck unloading zones to move laggards along their way. Toys 'R' Us welcomes kids of all ages to the world's biggest toy store on the northeast corner of Broadway and 44th Street, across the street from the MTV and the "Good Morning America" studios. The City is even spending $83 million on a new Times Square subway complex.

In fact, there is more than $4 billion worth of development underway in and around Times Square, thanks in part to a 57% reduction in crime since 1992 and a 36% increase in cleanliness to a point where surveys return ratings at or close to 100%, according to the Times Square Business Improvement District (BID). Millions of square feet of entertainment, hotel and office space is opening up, as as many as 8,700 people an hour cross a given street.

About 1.5 million people pass along The Great White Way each day, providing an ever-changing, attentive audience for the multi-million-dollar collection of creative advertising signage that glitters throughout the day and night, hawking everything from Coca-Cola to Mickey Mouse. The new Conde Nast headquarters building at Four Times Square sports huge advertising panels on all sides of the building, including a 125-foot NASDAQ sign, while Cadillac pays more than $1 million a year for a billboard at Two Times Square. In fact, many landlords have found that they can make more money renting the space outside their buildings than they can make renting the space inside. One Times Square, while mostly vacant, collects more than $7 million a year for four signs hanging outside it.

Formed in 1992, the BID operates on a budget of some $7 million a year gleaned from neighborhood business assessments, contracts and sponsorships. It provides supplemental security and sanitation services and operates a homeless outreach in partnership with Project Renewal. Most visitors to Times Square, though, know the BID as the neighborhood's very visible visitors center. Located in the landmark Embassy Theatre on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets, the Times Square Visitors Center each year hosts about a million people, who get multi-lingual advice, brochures and theater and tour tickets, change money, use ATM's, buy Metrocards, get free Internet access, and even use public bathrooms.

The BID also keeps track of new and upcoming developments in the neighborhood, and the list is perhaps the most impressive private investment agenda of all time. The list starts at Four Times Square with the new Conde Nast office tower; it stretches across to 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue, where an 860-room skyscraper Westin hotel has become one of New York's most distinctive skyline landmarks. It ranges from 42nd Street where Hilton has opened the Hilton Times Square to the new Convention and Visitors Bureau Center on Seventh Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets.

In between, here's just a partial list of grand openings that are recent or current: The Loews Cineplex and Broadway City on 42nd Street between Eighth and Seventh Avenues; the new 42 Building housing The Duke Theater, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, a 26-screen AMC theater, HMV Records and Ruby's Diner on 42nd Street between Eighth and Seventh; Reuters' new headquarters at Three Times Square; Ernst & Young's headquarters at Five Times Square; the Selwyn Theater on 43rd Street; the Warner Brothers Store at One Times Square; the Second Stage Theater at 43rd and Eighth; the World Wrestling Federation restaurant (no kidding) at 43rd and Seventh; Times Square Studios at 44th and Broadway; the Premier Hotel and St. Andrew's Scottish bar and restaurant on 44th Street; the Teatro Grill on 47th Street; Planet Hollywood Hotel at 47th and Broadway; the new Dorsay Restaurant on Restaurant Row (46th Between Eighth and Ninth Avenues); the Kevin St. James bar and restaurant on Eighth between 46th and 47th; the Garrick Bistro, the Time Hotel and Palladin restaurant on 49th Street; the Palm Restaurant at 50th and Eighth; Zona Grille on 50th ; Popcorn, Indiana at 48th and Broadway, and the Rockefeller West Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Plaza on Seventh Avenue between 49th and 50th.

The towering new buildings at Four Times Square, Three Times Square, Five Times Square, and Six Times Square contribute to an overall increase of some seven million square feet of office space in the neighborhood. Some 243,820 people work in the 30-square-block area. And this figure doesn't include the thousands of construction workers who still are doing so much of the building.

This all follows Disney's linchpin redevelopment of the New Amsterdam Theater and the American Airlines Theater, the hugely successful productions of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, and its Times Square megastore, in addition to a McDonald's that never closes.

The genesis of the Times Square turnaround took place in 1980, when city and state officials and civic leaders decided that the most famous neighborhood on earth had had enough of drug pushers, prostitutes and porno dealers, and they formed the 42nd Street Development Project. It was well-intentioned, but the bottom fell out of the real estate market and the sleaze stayed. Then the market recovered, those with foresight could see the promise that Times Square still held, the BID put muscle behind the good intentions, and now most retailers can't even think about affording the $300-a-square-foot rents that landlords are demanding. In fact, rents in Times Square are as much as eight times what they were less than a decade ago.

With the opening of the Gap, Old Navy, Toys 'R' Us and other chain stores, critics fear that they are witnessing the ultimate "malling" of America, but in fact, this is still Times Square, and the area's concentration on entertainment and sheer fun is greater than it has been since its heyday in the 1920's and 1930's when it was, according to BID, "a symbol of an emerging commercial culture."

Now it is the symbol of an established commercial culture, with huge stock tickers at One Times Square and 1585 Broadway. Yet one of its most poignant residents is the Times Square Church, where those dressed in silk and those dressed in tatters worship side by side on Sunday mornings. And not to be forgotten are the historic theaters that have been saved, including the Apollo and the Lyric (which, together form the Ford Center for the Performing Arts), the Empire and the New Victory, as well as the crown jewel New Amsterdam. They owe their new lives to the state condemning this strip of 42nd Street as a blighted area in 1990 and providing tax breaks for legitimate developers.

Still, folks can walk out of a theater between acts and cross the street to a neighborhood pizzeria for a hot slice and a cold brew for less than five dollars. And what theater there is these days! Visitors can select from the greatest variety of entertainment offered since the turn of the century, everything from Aida to The Producers, from Cabaret to Chicago to Mamma Mia, Gypsy, La Boheme, Les Miserables, Rent, Urban Cowboy, The Look of Love, The Phantom of the Opera, etc. Nearly 12 million people a year go to a theater, spending $590 million on tickets.

This is Times Square where there are 277 restaurants and 665 stores, where no fewer than 15 subway lines and 15 bus routes come together, newspapers are available from around the world, and zoning laws literally prohibit any development that is not suitably glitzy and dazzling. Malling shmalling! Times Square is once again ahead of the times, and visitors and most New Yorkers seem to love it.

Who Are All These People?
According to a BID survey of Times Square strollers, 70 percent are visitors, and 22 percent work in the area. Of the visitors, 22 percent are from other countries, and 29 percent are from outside the New York City metropolitan area. The average Times Square pedestrian is young, single, middle class and college-educated. Some 40% come to see the sights, 18% to attend a theatrical performance, 17% to shop, 5% to see a movie, and 3% to dine out.

New Year's Eve
People of all ages and backgrounds fill this most popular town square each year for the world's most famous New Year's Eve celebration. The tradition began in 1904, when The New York Times (whose owners had lobbied the City to name the square after their newspaper) was housed at One Times Square and began ushering in the new year with rooftop festivities. These days a half-million revelers gather to watch the ball drop, while another billion watch the event on television sets around the world. The new millennium was rung in with a new 1,000-pound Waterford crystal ball that was six feet in diameter.

Spiffing Up
The Times Square Business Improvement District, with Cooper, Robertson & Partners, has developed a master plan to clean up and define uses for the "Bowtie" area between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, and the BID is developing plans with city agencies to expand Duffy Square. The Theater Development Fund, meanwhile, has launched a competition for designs to replace the current TKTS facility. And there are plans underway to create signage and lighting to point out to visitors the many Times Square shortcuts that commuters and residents use to scoot back and forth from mid-block to mid-block.

« back to top