With their ongoing troubles concerning low sales, music retailers have recently begun closing stores in once-profitable markets. The latest victim of this move is Virgin Megastore, specifically their Times Square location, which will close its doors in April.
According to Billboard, the decision to close the Times Square store has been on Virgin Megastore‘s agenda since last June when new owners Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust, two lucrative real estate companies, were seeking new renters for the prime location.
As America’s biggest music retail store, Times Square’s Virgin Megastore raked in $55 million a year, with a $6 million profit line. However, the low rent paid by Virgin was not in the best interest for Vornado, who bought the 180,000 square-foot downtown space in 2006. At the time, it was estimated that Virgin only paid $54 per square-foot when market numbers had the area priced around $700 per square-foot.
Related and Vornado have already found renting suitors in Forever 21, a fashion department store that specializes in young women’s apparel. Though the agreement is likely more than what Virgin was originally paying, the renting price is still unknown at this current time.
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The Times Square closure will leave Union Square as the lone Virgin building in New York. This is the sixth of eleven U.S. Virgin Megastores to close in the last two years.
