Junior’s Restaurant Opening Second Times Square Location
By Liam La Guerre July 7, 2016 3:50 pm
reprints
This deal takes the cake.
Junior’s Restaurant, the Brooklyn-born eatery known for its scrumptious cheesecakes, has swiped the former space of Pan-Asian-styled Ruby Foo’s at 1626 Broadway for its second Times Square location.
The diner has signed a 10,287-square-foot lease for the spot between West 49th and West 50th Streets, according to CBRE, which represented the tenant and the landlord—a division of the Kuwaiti Investment Authority. Ruby Foo’s was located there for 15 years until October 2015.
CBRE declined to release the asking rent in the 15-year deal. At the newest locale, slated to open next year, the restaurant expects to seat 300 with a separate bakery takeout counter, as The New York Times first reported. It will occupy 5,285 square feet on the ground floor, 3,237 square feet on the lower level, 1,017 square feet on the mezzanine level and 775 square feet on the lower-level mezzanine.
“Ownership was seeking an established restaurateur to take the well-known space formerly occupied by Ruby Foo’s,” CBRE’s Gary Trock, who brokered the deal with colleagues David LaPierre, Sean Moran and Zachary Parisi, said in a prepared statement. ”Junior’s already knows how to operate within the Times Square submarket and this was an opportunity to expand from their other Times Square location—which has proven to be a successful destination spot as it continues to reach full capacity each night.”
Junior’s other Times Square location is at 1515 Broadway between West 44th and West 45th Streets, and the company also has a spot in Grand Central Terminal. Of course, the original eatery is in Brooklyn, downtown, at 386 Flatbush Avenue Extension.
The Kuwaiti Investment Authority paid $485 million in May 2011 for 1626 Broadway, also known as 750 Seventh Avenue, and the adjacent 758 Seventh Avenue, as The Real Deal reported.
