Toys "R" Us Shutters Times Square Store

Toys R Us opened in Times Square in 2001, when the neighbourhood was still only a few years removed from its bad old days as a centre for adult entertainment and grime.

For over 14 years, the store on Times Square offered some scale, awe and a bit of chaos to all its many tiny visitors.

On July 21, 2005, a consortium of Bain Capital Partners LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Vornado Realty Trust invested $1.3 billion to complete a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout of Toys "R" Us. The truly ambitious waited on a long, winding line to get one last ride on the Ferris wheel.

"You can tell they haven't restocked the shelves", said his friend Breanna Pavenski from New Jersey. "A bare storefront on Christmas break in New York City?". The company's lease for the store is expiring in January 2016 and a decision was taken for not renewing the lease owing to extremely high rentals. The store has been occupying 110,000 square feet in the building.

But now they will have to keep dreaming because the massive Toys R Us superstore in Times Square, which wowed shoppers with a 60ft indoor Ferris wheel, a growling, 20ft animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a life-size Barbie dollhouse, has had its last shopping day.

"We are actively searching for another location in Midtown Manhattan and the process is ongoing", said Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Victoria Scipione.

Attention, shoppers, you have just hours left before the world's largest toy store closes - for good. The law firm said Toys "R" Us was paying only half of today's going rate. But the owners have been marketing the space at $2,500 per square foot per year for the ground floor, compared to $350 for the second floor and $150 for the basement.

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