{"id":224781,"date":"2026-05-08T17:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/224781\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T17:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:31:08","slug":"primark-lands-in-manhattan-as-herald-square-shows-signs-of-retail-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/224781\/","title":{"rendered":"Primark lands in Manhattan as Herald Square shows signs of retail revival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Primark, a nearly 500\u2011store fast\u2011fashion retailer founded in Ireland in 1969, has opened its first location in Manhattan, marking a key step in its U.S. expansion. <\/p>\n

As part of a marketing campaign, the Empire State Building was lit up Thursday in the retailer\u2019s signature aqua color. The lighting underscored the splashy significance of the arrival, a bit of New York fanfare typically reserved for major cultural or civic moments.<\/p>\n

The debut comes as Herald Square \u2014 long one of New York\u2019s most prominent retail districts \u2014 shows fresh signs of recovery after lagging other corridors and losing major tenants such as Uniqlo and Forever 21.<\/p>\n

Primark on Friday opened a four\u2011level store at 150 W. 34th St., occupying a full block between West 33rd and 34th streets across from Penn Station, the country’s busiest transportation hub. Primark signed a 77,760\u2011square\u2011foot lease for the space in 2024 with landlord Vornado Realty Trust, according to CoStar data.<\/p>\n

The building previously housed Gap\u2019s discount chain Old Navy. The opening marks Primark\u2019s sixth store in New York and its 40th store across 13 U.S. states since entering the U.S. market in 2015 with a flagship in Boston, where its U.S. operation is also based. Primark\u2019s first New York store opened on Staten Island in 2017.<\/p>\n

Primark is owned by Associated British Foods, a U.K.\u2011based conglomerate that traces its roots to a bakery founded in 1935 before evolving into a global group of food and apparel businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re aware this is the fashion capital of the world, so it was always about the right opportunity in the right place for us to be able to do something in Manhattan,\u201d Kevin Tulip, Primark\u2019s U.S. president, said in an interview. He added the retailer is seeing \u201cvery good results\u201d from its New York locations in Brooklyn and Queens.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Kevin Tulip has worked at Primark for 25 years. (Andria Cheng\/CoStar)<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York’s very important to us \u2026 at the moment, really the most important market that we’re focusing on,\u201d Tulip said. \u201cWe have our biggest collection of stores here. We’ve had the most growth here. \u2026 Our growth plans are fairly cautious. We’re not just signing deals and opening stores anywhere. We really do our homework.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tulip said Primark is also seeing \u201cvery strong performance\u201d in other U.S. markets, including Florida.<\/p>\n

Primark\u2019s latest store coincides with signs of a rebound in Herald Square, the New York shopping district that trailed other corridors after the pandemic. The neighborhood is known as being home to Macy\u2019s iconic flagship.<\/p>\n

For instance, TJ Maxx signed a lease spanning 40,000 square feet, its first new deal in more than a decade in New York, at Herald Towers at 50 W. 34th St., where Gap\u2019s Old Navy also is relocating.<\/a><\/p>\n

Herald Square sits adjacent to Vornado\u2019s mixed-use Penn District surrounding the Penn Station transit hub. Vornado has named Newmark<\/a> as exclusive leasing agent for its Penn District retail portfolio as CEO Steven Roth has said the firm is repositioning what he described as \u201cjunky retail\u201d along Seventh Avenue between West 33rd and 34th streets. Roth has framed the effort as a broader transformation of the gateway area.<\/p>\n

The 34th Street stretch between Fifth and Seventh avenues saw its first-quarter retail availability rate decline to 32.2% from 35.6% a year earlier, the worst-performing among major Manhattan shopping corridors, according to a Cushman & Wakefield study. In contrast, Manhattan\u2019s average dropped to a record low of 10.8%.<\/p>\n

Herald Square\u2019s asking rents last quarter rose 4.1% from a year earlier and were 25.4% higher than in the first quarter of 2021, driven by higher rents for corner spaces, the brokerage found.<\/p>\n

Mix of locals, commuters and tourists\n<\/p>\n

Tulip declined to provide financial projections for the Manhattan location, except to say Primark has \u201chigh expectations\u201d for the store, steps from the rail station that sees more than 600,000 daily commuters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very excited about the foot traffic levels that we’ll have around here,\u201d Tulip, a 25-year company veteran after starting with the chain in the United Kingdom at age 16 as a part-time store employee. Coming out of Penn Station, \u201cthe first thing that [people will] be seeing on 33rd Street and 34th Street is a brand-new Primark store. … This area is a big tourist destination. \u2026 The mix of locals, commuters and tourism in this area is fantastic, even if other retailers have moved out.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, the opening comes soon after Primark posted mixed results. Associated British Foods CEO George Weston said in April the company is \u201cmanaging the impacts of the Middle East conflict\u201d and expects \u201cthe cost consequences in 2026 to be manageable,\u201d but warned that \u201cthere is a risk to Primark sales if the conflict persists and consumer spending deteriorates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primark\u2019s sales in France, Italy and Northern Europe, together representing some 28% of its business, declined in the first half of fiscal 2026, while the U.K. and Ireland, 45% of its sales, rose 2%. U.S. sales, 6% of Primark\u2019s total, jumped 12% as the retailer expands its footprint in the market. By the end of the year, the store count in the country is expected to rise to more than 50, Tulip told CoStar. <\/p>\n

Focus on value, marketing\n<\/p>\n

Primark faces competition from brick-and-mortar rivals such as H&M as well as online sellers such as China\u2019s Shein, analysts have said. Unlike many competitors, Primark does not sell online in the United States \u2014 its only online ordering is a click\u2011and\u2011collect service available in the United Kingdom, a company spokesperson told CoStar News.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the U.S. consumer, there\u2019s a huge pull towards value,\u201d said Tulip, noting Primark has an average price point of about $10. Wearing an outfit entirely from Primark that he said cost roughly $100, Tulip added, \u201cIf you can\u2019t shop with us online, we need to be top of mind in people’s faces around the value that we offer. \u2026 That’s the opportunity that’s ahead of us. \u2026 Most of our growth in Europe has literally been through word of mouth over a longer period of time. \u2026 We haven’t had that yet in the U.S. We’re starting to build it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

To accelerate brand awareness, Primark has invested in a U.S. marketing push around the Manhattan opening, including billboards and subway and bus ads. It\u2019s a departure from the company\u2019s typical strategy of relying primarily on social media, Tulip told CoStar.<\/p>\n

The store\u2019s design is meant to stand out along the crowded stretch of 34th Street that also includes Target, Victoria\u2019s Secret, Sephora and Crocs. <\/p>\n

Gensler, the architecture firm that designed the space, introduced an arched facade with \u201ca punchy pop of Primark\u2019s signature aqua,\u201d drawing inspiration from the former Penn Arcade pedestrian passage that once occupied the site, said Jonathan Tyler, a principal and retail leader at the firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a busy retail row, the facade delivers Primark\u2019s striking branding across the wide vista of 34th Street and gives the building a new identity,\u201d Tyler said in an email.<\/p>\n

The store also introduced a first for Primark in the United States: a 350\u2011square\u2011foot third\u2011floor \u201cpress room,\u201d a showroom\u2011style space designed to host content creators, journalists, partners and special guests, a nod to Herald Square\u2019s history as a center of publishing and media, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Primark, a nearly 500\u2011store fast\u2011fashion retailer founded in Ireland in 1969, has opened its first location in Manhattan,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-224781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}