{"id":249703,"date":"2026-05-31T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T16:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/249703\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T16:23:08","slug":"asian-toy-companies-like-labubu-maker-invading-nycs-times-square-after-recent-departures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/249703\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian toy companies — like Labubu maker — invading NYC’s Times Square after recent departures"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friendly Asian invasion\u00a0is taking up some of the retail-space slack from recent departures of sportswear and jewelry shops from Times Square.<\/p>\n

The largest is soon to come \u2014 a 7,000 square-foot emporium for Chinese-owned PopMart, makers of creepy but cuddly Labubu dolls, in Vornado\u2019s space at\u00a01540 Broadway<\/a>. Another Chinese brand, TopToy, will open soon\u00a0in a highly visible, 2,000 square-foot corner of SL Green\u2019s\u00a01515 Broadway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll join China-owned novelty shop Miniso at 5 Times Square; Japan\u2019s collectibles brand Tamashi Nations at 1500 Broadway; South Korean cartoon-character mecca Line Friends, which bills itself as \u201cK-Pop Square,\u201d at\u00a01515 Broadway<\/a>; and Chinese-import Hey Tea at 1565 Broadway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"StorefrontTopToy is set to open an emporium at 1515 Broadway. Steve Cuozzo<\/p>\n

The new and recent leases have filled \u201cBowtie\u201d locations which more than a few established retailers left in recent years \u2014 among them, Express, Swarovski, Express, Oakley, Ray-Ban and MAC. The novelty merchants might have wider appeal to families making their way through Times Square\u2019s human zoo of Elmos and other costumed characters.<\/p>\n

Cushman & Wakefield \u2019s retail leasing legend, Joanne Podell, who represented both Miniso and TopToy with her firm\u2019s Michael Shalom in\u00a0negotiations, said of the Asian fun-toy influx, \u201cIt\u00a0is\u00a0a trend.\u201d She noted that the products aren\u2019t only for kids \u2014 \u201cAdults are collecting them. They make you smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new arrivals have local merchants and business advocates smiling, too.<\/p>\n

\"PopPop Mart\u2019s upcoming 7,000 square-foot-store at 1540 Broadway will be Times Square\u2019s largest dedicated to Asian toy brands. Steve Cuozzo<\/p>\n

Times Square Alliance president Tom Harris said, \u201cFor over a hundred years people have been coming to Times Square to play. The addition of these toy stores adds another playful layer to the already complex and diverse Times Square landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re bringing joy to landlords as well. Times Square sources said PopMart\u2019s ground-floor rent at the multilevel store at\u00a01540 Broadway<\/a>\u00a0is an astonishing $2,000 per square foot.<\/p>\n

The Hey Tea space at\u00a01565 Broadway<\/a>\u00a0was reported by the Commercial Observer to have an asking rent of $4 million a year for 2,390 square feet \u2014 \u00a0or an impressive $1673 per square foot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A friendly Asian invasion\u00a0is taking up some of the retail-space slack from recent departures of sportswear and jewelry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[288,2361,9,56,63,65,64,1491,3274,9104,2027,6128],"class_list":["post-249703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-business","tag-leases","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-real-estate","tag-realty-check","tag-retailers","tag-times-square","tag-toys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249703","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=249703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}