Toy Fair's space race

Time is not on your side and there's not much left. Displaced showroom-based toy companies need to make plans now for October's American International Fall Toy Show or face the prospect of being locked out of the proximity to others most deem critical for the event. And with most companies forced from the old International Toy Center, and with no alternative showroom building selected—or even imminent as Playthings went to press—the prospect for finding permanent space in time for February's American International Toy Fair grows more urgent daily.

That leaves the Toy Industry Association in a central position as organizer of the only game in town: the space it arranged at the Javits Convention Center. It has committed to serving all comers for the fall show who reserve a position by May 15. As of early April—prior to New York Toy Tenants' exhortation to former ITC showroom holders to make other plans—TIA had received just 32 requests for space for the Oct. 20-23 fall show, said Marian Bossard, TIA's director of event planning.

The fall show, formerly held in private showrooms, is intended to consist of closed-door meetings and invite-only previews for longer lead-time mass merchants. Showroom walls and doors formed the perfect barriers to protect those sessions. Accomplishing the same thing at Javits will be more challenging and costly—particularly for a one-time effort.

The available space? There's 220,000 gross sq. ft., netting out to just 110,000 thousand sq. ft.

“We came in very late and only asked the Javits Center [for the space] last October for this October, and you know they work on a long cycle,” Bossard said in a sit-down interview. She explained about 50 percent of the gross space is utilized for public space—aisles and egress.

Bossard indicated that space calculations would be apples and oranges comparisons.

“So if I say it's 110,000, they'll think, 'Well, I'll lose 30 percent on the build out' and think they have nothing,” she said. “So rather than complicate or confuse, we're just saying 'Tell us what you need.' But be prepared that if demand exceeds what's available, we're going to come back and say, 'Well, instead of 5,000 [sq. ft.], we're going to give you 2,000 [sq. ft.].' We don't know what the number is yet. That's why it's so critical everyone who might need space tells us as soon as possible.”

Bossard believes everyone will be accommodated but probably on allocation, which is why she's pushing for early estimates. She'll also be asking companies to gauge their minimum space requirements.

Costs will be $20 per sq. ft. for TIA members and $26 for non-members. TIA is picking up drayage charges at Javits from the loading docks to the booths, she said, but only for the October show.

What that buys is space surrounded on all four sides by an 8-foot-high curtain, offering some visual privacy. The meeting/booth space will be located in Javits at Level 3, Hall 3a; Level 1, Hall 1a and in the Galleria.

“Vendors who work with the mass [channel] are savvy enough to know that privacy and confidentiality are paramount—paramount,” she stressed. “It's up to individual occupants to decide if that look is in line with their corporate image; if it's sufficient to what they consider private.”

TIA will offer up its own general services contractor or permit exhibitors to bring in their own builders and decorators to put up hardwall booths.

“Everyone according to their own needs,” Bossard said. “But we are stressing this is a by-appointment-only [show] and you know what these mass retailers want. Do the right thing.”

Further, Hall 1a has “airwalls,” Bossard explained, permitting it to be subdivided into 26 rooms from floor to ceiling. The downside, she noted, is it's available only for a one day move in—still do-able, she said. The hardwall booths will probably range from $30 to $55 per sq. ft.

What about space outside of Javits? The TIA undertook an “exhaustive” search last year and came up empty.

Space for Toy Fair 2007, should the showroom companies need to be there, will be no less challenging, although still do-able, Bossard said.

Last year's Toy Fair took about 325,000 sq. ft. and the halls can probably handle about 368,000, she said. But there's more space to be found on the ground floor, in overlook meeting rooms and in the Galleria.

“[Potential exhibitors] need to tell us they want to be there,” she exhorts. “Time is of the essence. There are walls in that building and we will fill every nook and cranny, but this is not a time to sit back and wait.”

The booth cost will be the same as in October but will not include the drayage, she added.

Bossard declined to directly address the issue of how space will be assigned, acknowledging the uproar the matter created last year. She referred inquires to the guidelines posted on TIA's Web site.

“We're trying to minimize the stress on behalf of the new exhibitors,” Bossard said. “But let's not forget that we need to try to recognize the needs of the retailers and we're trying to anticipate what their worst nightmares are and eliminate them.”