National fashion retailer the KnitWell Group is expanding its Midtown headquarters after inking a massive 20-year lease renewal at 7 Times Square, the property’s owners announced Monday.
The women’s apparel company, whose brands include Ann Taylor, Loft and Chico’s, signed the long-term lease with developer BXP for about 246,000 square feet within the roughly 1.3 million-square-foot office tower, according to the Midtown-based real estate firm.
KnitWell Group, which generates more than $6 billion in annual sales, had previously occupied about 191,000 square feet in the 47-story building, which takes up the full block between West 41st and West 42nd streets and is bounded by Broadway, but is now expanding into an additional two floors, which total about 55,000 square feet.
Representatives for BXP declined to provide the cost per square foot that KnitWell Group is paying for the space, but a report from Colliers this month shows that the average asking rent in Midtown during the last quarter of 2024 was $77.89 per square foot, a less than 1% drop from the previous quarter, according to the data. BXP also declined to provide the building’s occupancy rate, although the independent website Property Shark says that it’s about 75% occupied.
Times Square also saw its highest quarterly leasing volume since 2018, hitting the milestone of about 6.3 million square feet during the last three months of 2024, the report shows, thanks in part to a handful of some of the largest Manhattan transactions during that time, including Bloomberg’s extension at 919 Third Ave., Citadel’s new lease at 660 Fifth Ave. and Ropes & Gray’s lease at 1285 Sixth Ave.
Brokers Eric Deutsch, Ken Meyerson, Jared Freede, Ariel Ball, and Elliot Bok of Midtown-based commercial real estate firm CBRE represented KnitWell in the negotiations.
Seven Times Square sits next to the 38-story office tower 5 Times Square, where Midtown-based Apollo Global Management, in partnership with RXR and SL Green, are forging ahead with plans to convert the building into a residential property with 942 apartments, Crain’s recently reported.
