Macy's Hidden Holdout Building Revealed After Over a Century of Billboards
By billboards for over 100 years, holdout building by Macy's is back
For the first time since the early 1900s, the tiny holdout building at the northwest corner of Herald Square is visible again as Macy's dismantles its century-old billboards. This five-story structure, originally owned by Rev. Duane Pell and later sold to rival Siegel-Cooper, was built around by Macy's in a spiteful real estate battle. Now, with the iconic shopping bag ad removed, the historic facade stands exposed, marking a rare moment where this emblem of Manhattan's bitter retail wars reemerges from the shadows.
This tiny parcel was the property of an old-time New Yorker, Rev. Duane Pell, who felt that he had held the key to the entire important Herald Square corner and that he was justified in asking any price he saw fit.
- hdgvhicv
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Corner
In September 2021, Macy's accused the billboard's owner Kaufman Realty of negotiating to lease the space to an online retailer before Macy's most recent lease expired that August. Macy's claimed that the lessee was almost certainly Amazon and filed for an injunction preventing Kaufman from leasing the space to a competitor. Macy's claimed that a 1963 agreement prohibited such a lease "forever" and that an Amazon billboard would be highly visible during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
- justincormack
The London version of this is Spiegelhalters, in the middle of the ornate facade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickhams_(department_store)
- egorfine
Is it more profitable to lease the space for banners as opposed to lease the apartments to tenants?
- dn3500
They have an odd definition of "middle".
- bitwize
Mamdani should expropriate the building and do something charitable with it.