Big City Adventure New York City (Part 1)
0(Facts About Places In The Game - Times Square-)
Inspired by New York’s FOA Schwarz, the 110,000sq ft (10,220sq m) Gensler-designed flagship was the largest toy store in the world and would become an icon of Times Square for many years.
Among its attractions, the store included a life-size Barbie dreamhouse, a 34-foot (10.3m) animatronic T-Rex, giant lego figures, an amusement arcade and the store’s iconic 60-foot-tall (18.3m) indoor Ferris wheel.
As impressive as the flagship was, it was an expensive one too. Space in Times Square comes at a premium, with tenants at the time charged more than US$100 (€82, £75) per square foot, Toy R Us would pay over US$12m (€9.9m, £9m) a year for the space.
Opening just months after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York, footfall was down in Times Square by roughly 40%. Expected visitors in the first year was 25 million people. With the reduction in footfall, the reality was much lower, with 10 million people visiting the store through that period.