Century 21 Reopening Financial District Store After Going Dark in 2020
By Mark Hallum February 17, 2023 3:39 pm
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Century 21 is rising from the ashes of its 2020 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and will reopen its Financial District flagship store at 22 Cortlandt Street in the spring.
But the planned April 25 rebirth of the department came with some concessions, according to Crain’s New York Business, which first reported the news. Only four of the store’s original six floors, totaling 100,000 square feet, will be open to retail.
Century 21 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The revival comes after the Gindi family, which owns Century 21 through ASG Equities, shuttered up to 13 locations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida at the height of the pandemic. ASG blamed the closures on insurance companies declining to cover $175 million in lost income due to the forced closures.
The Cortlandt Street location was one of those that went dark. Another Century 21 location that closed was in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where the department store got off the ground in 1961 after being founded by the Gindi family.
The company announced that it would revive the Financial District location in May 2022, with the brand expected to partner with Legends Hospitality for its return.
But its Bay Ridge outpost might not reopen. ASG decided in March to demolish the 170,000-square-foot vacant retail building between near 460 86th Street in favor of redeveloping the property into a retail center that can host multiple tenants, Commercial Observer reported at the time.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
