Dean & DeLuca Taking Space in Times Tower

By Tom Acitelli

Published on September 18, 2007

Both are expected to open by mid-2008. Full release below.

NEW YORK – Tuesday, September 18, 2007—Forest City Ratner Companies announced that two new tenants have signed leases for street-level retail space in The New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue near Times Square.

Dean & DeLuca, the highly-regarded gourmet food emporium, will lease nearly 3,200 square feet to open its seventh Dean & DeLuca Café in New York. Inakaya, the world-famous “robatayaki”-style restaurant known for its haute grilling, will lease approximately 3,000 square feet to open its first American eatery in the first half of 2008.

With the Dean & DeLuca and Inakaya lease signings, three of the five retail units available in The New York Times Building are now leased. Office space in the 52-story tower is now approximately 86% leased.

Bruce Ratner, president and CEO of Forest City Ratner, said, “I’m delighted that Dean & DeLuca, one of New York’s best-known and most highly-regarded gourmet food businesses has chosen The New York Times Building to open one of its stylish cafes. We are equally pleased that Inakaya—a Tokyo restaurant renowned for its high quality dining experience—has selected The New York Times Building for its first American location. We look forward to offering these two distinctive and entertaining dining venues to the thousands of employees in The New York Times Building and the tens of thousands of visitors who pass through Times Square every day.”

Dean & DeLuca CEO Beth Pritchard, said: "The New York Times Building is a New York landmark, as is Dean & DeLuca, so we are very excited about bringing these two Manhattan icons together. It will be great to interact with the dynamic New York Times staff, the employees of the building’s other tenants, and the public, in our new, expanded Dean & DeLuca café concept."

Kozo Matsuo, owner of Inakaya, said, “We are thrilled to make our American debut in the newest and most modern commercial building in New York City located at the crossroads of the world. We are sure New Yorkers will delight in the unique dining opportunity Inakaya will provide.”

The Dean & DeLuca Café, which is expected to open in mid-2008, will be located at the corner of 40th Street and Eighth Avenue. Designed with the ambiance of a European café, Dean & DeLuca’s new location will have seating for 60 and will feature fresh soups & salads, sandwiches, fresh-baked pizzas, decadent pastries, and a wide selection of coffees and teas.

Inakaya will be located at 40th Street and Eighth Avenue—just next door to MUJI, the Japanese retailer that is leasing approximately 5,000 square feet of retail space in The New York Times Building. Inakaya, which now operates three restaurants in Tokyo, offers an entertaining and lively dining experience that features meals prepared “robatayaki”, an haute Japanese style of cuisine in which food is cooked over a large rustic grill in full view of the diners.

Dean & DeLuca was represented by Candice Dobbs of Dobbs Associates. Inakaya was represented by Naomi Okada of the New York City-based Okada International in the lease negotiations. Forest City Ratner represented itself in both negotiations.

The New York Times Building will hold its grand opening in late fall 2007. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, the building is located between 40th and 41st Streets on Eighth Avenue, and is topped by a 300-foot steel rooftop mast bringing its height to 1,046 feet.

The 1.5-million-gross-square-foot New York Times Building is owned jointly, as condominiums, by The New York Times Company and Forest City Ratner Companies. The Times Company owns floors 2 through 27 and Forest City Ratner owns floors 29 through 50 and floor 52, as well as 21,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Floors 28 and 51 are jointly owned by the Times Company and Forest City.

About Forest City Ratner

Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) owns and operates 32 properties in the New York metropolitan region—including 5.2 million square feet of office space. FCRC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., a $9.5-billion NYSE-listed national real estate company (ticker: FCEA & FCEB). The company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management, and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate and land throughout the United States.