Foot Locker to Relocate Headquarters From New York City to Florida
By Isabelle Durso August 28, 2024 4:21 pm
reprints
Foot Locker is lacing up for a new move.
The footwear retailer announced Wednesday in its second-quarter earnings report that its long-rumored plans to move its headquarters from New York City to St. Petersburg, Fla., will happen in 2025.
“To better support our strategic progress, to increase team member collaboration, as well as ongoing expense discipline, we made the decision to relocate our headquarters to St. Petersburg,” Foot Locker CEO Mary Dillon said in a statement. “I remain confident that we are taking the right actions to position the company for its next 50 years of profitable growth and create long-term shareholder value.”
Dillon added that Foot Locker will “maintain only a limited presence in New York City going forward” and that the move is intended to “build on the company’s meaningful presence in St. Petersburg,” according to the report.
A spokesperson for Foot Locker did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. The move was first reported by the New York Business Journal.
The company originally expressed interest in moving its headquarters to the Sunshine State in October 2021, but plans fell through in 2022 when Pinellas County officials announced the deal was inactive, Tampa Bay Business Journal reported at the time.
Now that deal’s back in business as the sportswear chain marches south.
Foot Locker moved its corporate headquarters to 145,000 square feet at 330 West 34th Street in 2015, as Commercial Observer previously reported. It will maintain 79 stores across New York state, including 15 locations in Manhattan, 12 in the Bronx and 15 in Brooklyn, according to the company’s website.
The company’s new office in Florida, where it has over 60 stores, will “enable increased collaboration among teams across banners and functions, while also reducing costs,” Foot Locker said.
Foot Locker also announced in its earnings report Wednesday that total sales increased by 1.9 percent to $1.9 billion in the second quarter of 2024, up from $1.8 billion during the same period last year.
However, the company’s losses also grew with its net losses reaching $12 million in the second quarter, compared to $5 million in the corresponding period in 2023, the report said.
As of this month, Foot Locker operated 2,464 stores across the globe — five of which opened during the second quarter of this year.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
