Last hurrah for 'building’

City venues for February Toy Fairs beyond 2006 and the hunt for new permanent showroom space have moved to the vanguard following the decision last month to keep American International Fall Toy Show in New York.

In rejecting a bid by Dallas to become the host city, The Toy Industry Association’s board of directors said the fall show, commonly referred to as the “mass market show” will remain in New York indefinitely. The unanimous vote immediately struck a conciliatory tone with critics of the proposed move who earlier threatened a split with the association and, perhaps, even to mount a competitive New York-based show. Instead, key players spoke of a renewed spirit of cooperation.

“We’re pleased that we reached a result,” Arnie Rubin, TIA board chair told Playthings following the nearly 10-hour meeting in Los Angeles, April 19. “And it’s one that meets our strategic plan as well. What we want is to have the best possible show for our industry.” Rubin is also president and CEO of Funrise Toy Corp., Los Angeles.

International Toy Center tenants—many of them also TIA members—had mounted a vocal insurgency against the proposed move. With the ITC recently sold and facing showroom “homelessness,” the tenants are trying to negotiate their exits with the new landlord, The Chetrit Group, without knowing where a new ITC will be located.

In a meeting with tenant and TIA leaders at presstime, the new owners had agreed to permit firms with expired leases to remain in their showrooms on a month-to-month basis temporarily, as long as progress was being made on a permanent move, according to Tom Arbuckle, managing director, MHP Commercial Brokerage Services. Along with Cushman & Wakefield, MHP is representing the 200 Fifth Avenue Tenants’ Association.

In what was touted as its first town hall-type meeting, the tenants on April 13, protested that if one or both major toy shows left New York, they’d be left with limited leverage with the new landlord and no place to go.

But those complaints now seem quelled.

“Maybe we can bridge some of the gaps that have existed between parts of the industry and the TIA,” offered Andrew Stern, who leads the tenants’ association, which encompasses both buildings of the ITC. “Maybe we’re moving in the right direction.”

TIA board members Steven Greenfield, of Salo Ventures, and Ken Lewis, of 4Kidz, who attended the tenants’ meeting took their demands back to the full board at the meeting in Los Angeles.

According to TIA and tenant leaders, The Chetrit Group has offered assurances it will permit the fall show, scheduled for October 24-25, to take place in the buildings. The TIA said it is still seeking a New York City location for 2006.

For the tenants, three principal tasks remain, Stern said. They are:

• Negotiating current end-of-lease issues with the new landlord, which might include lease buyouts and moving expenses.
• Continuing the search for a new permanent showroom building that will effectively become the industry’s fulcrum—a new International Toy Center. “We don’t know if that will be six months from now or two years from now,” Stern said. “Hopefully, we can continue that search with the TIA to come up with a location that satisfies the needs of both the permanent tenants, as well as the TIA.”
• To continue to push New York as the location for both major markets. “The February question is still out there and it needs to be addressed because it plays into the permanent showroom issue,” Stern said. “New York needs to be the venue for the entire year.”

The are more than a dozen options for housing future shows, including permanent showroom space, according to MHP’s Arbuckle.

“There are at least three developers that are willing to develop a new center from the ground up,” he tells Playthings, noting that the locations include areas halfway from the Hudson Yards to the downtown district.

(The Hudson Yards is a 360 acre district that runs from West 42nd St. to West 30th St., and from Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River. It’s an area that’s been tagged as underutilized by city officials and targeted for redevelopment.)

Moreover, Arbuckle says there are nine landlords “willing to make a deal.” and RFPs (Requests for Proposals) have been sent to them. All the properties are on the West Side below 40th Street running to downtown areas of the city.

In the meantime, the TIA has committed to the American International Toy Fair in New York through February 2006. Proposals for the market to be held in New York, Orlando or Atlanta beginning in 2007 will be voted on May 20-22 in Phoenix during ToyCon, the TIA’s annual meeting and conference for senior executives.

Consideration to move the February show out of New York was announced last spring, long before the sale of the ITC. Since then Barry Shapiro, the TIA’s director of trade shows, has been shopping new venues.

“This will probably be the most important and exciting ToyCon in TIA history,” Arbuckle said. “The TIA has demonstrated that the tenants were heard. Now it is up to everyone else to show up and make sure their ideas are collected.”