Labubu Maker Pop Mart Inks 7K-SF Lease at 1540 Broadway

As if Times Square wasn’t insufferable enough, the Labubu craze is about to invade this infamous stretch of New York City. 

Pop Mart, which owns the wildly popular monster dolls, has signed a 10-year, 7,000-square-foot lease at the Vornado Realty Trust-owned 1540 Broadway, the New York Post first reported. 

The space will serve as the company’s U.S. flagship store when it opens in the second half of next year.

Labubus are an immensely popular toy, comparable to the Beanie Baby craze of the 1990s or the Cabbage Patch Doll fad of the 1980s. There is such high demand for these freaky little dolls that counterfeits have begun to flood the market, with Customs and Border Protection seizing $500,000 in fakes at Seattle’s airport in early September, ABC News reported. 

The asking rent and the names of the brokers on each side of the deal were not disclosed. Vornado declined Commercial Observer’s request for comment. The average asking rent for retail space in Times Square was $1,776 per square foot for the second quarter of this year, according to CBRE data. 

Located on the corner of 45th street and Broadway, 1540 Broadway is a 197,000-square-foot property sometimes known as the Bertelsmann Building because the German media company was the anchor tenant when the property opened in 1990.

The building is home to other retailers including The Disney Store, Forever 21, and the U.S. Polo Association. Corporate tenants at 1540 Broadway include the headquarters for jewelry brand Pandora, investment advisor Alight Capital Management, and software company Adobe. 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.