Champs Sports is changing its Times Square address.
The Foot Locker-owned athletic-wear retailer has just leased a two-level store at 10 Times Sq., also known as 1441 Broadway.
For nearly 15 years, Champs has held down the prime southwest corner of West 42nd and Seventh Avenue at 5 Times Sq., but its lease may be up, and the store has little presence as ever-bigger LED signage has proliferated over the block.
Champs’ new ground-floor space has 115 feet of frontage along Broadway and West 41st Street, and a second floor would include 165 feet of frontage.
The 550,000-square-foot, 1930s-era 10 Times Sq. sits on the southwest corner of Broadway and West 41 Street. The ownership is completing a major capital-improvement project that includes a new curtain wall on the lower retail floors of the 38-story building as well as a new lobby that is expected to be unveiled before the end of the year.
The parties declined to reveal the square footage leased, but marketing materials show the space is likely to include a ground floor of 2,414 square feet and a second floor of 9,687 square feet.
The new Champs shop will be cater-corner to the parent company’s 36,000-square-foot Foot Locker store now open at 8 Times Sq., a.k.a 1460 Broadway.
No asking rent was available, but the neighborhood typically fetches far less than the $2,000 per-square-foot range of in the bow-tie area of Times Square, where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue a few blocks north.
Champs was represented by Mark Finkelstein, president of Retail Strategies.
Building owner Lechar Realty was represented by a JLL team led by Vice Chairman Robert Gibson, along with Davie Berke, Amy Zhen and Steven Robinson. Other retail space and signage opportunities are still available in the building.
Lechar’s founder, the late Leon Charney, who died last year, also was noted broadcaster, philanthropist, political adviser and authority on Middle East affairs.
