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Time ripens all things—and soon, it will reveal the future of 2250 Broadway, between 80th and 81st streets, where Westside Market, the Upper West Side brand that began on 110th Street in 1977, has purchased the building currently occupied by Staples.
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First reported by Crain’s New York Business, Westside Market purchased the three-floor, 35,000-square-foot retail space for $32.5 million from TPG Angelo Gordon, which had acquired the site for $27 million in 2022.
As of writing, Westside Market has not officially announced or confirmed whether it will take over the space it acquired. ILTUWS also reached out to Staples corporate, which has not responded to questions about whether the store will be moving out or when its lease expires.
“Damn, I use Staples a lot,” said Dorian Thornley, owner of Westsider Rare & Used Books, the famous bookstore next door to Staples at 2246 Broadway. Thornley said that if Staples closes, he might go back to using Quill, the office supply delivery company he used before, along with the nearby FedEx for copying and printing services.
Then Thornley dropped an Upper West Side history lesson, recalling that CBS once owned 2248 Broadway—the address Staples currently operates from. Sesame Street debuted there in 1969 on PBS.
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“In the photos below, we see the original home of the show, which was done from the old RKO 81st Street Theater at 2248 Broadway,” wrote EyesofaGeneration.com in a reminiscent Facebook post. “The theater was owned by Teletape Productions, but before this, it had been the home of the first and only CBS color studio on the East Coast… Studio 72, which was created in the fall of 1954.”
Westside Market, a family-owned business, could someday be operating out of this historic former studio space—once home to arguably the most important family-friendly show of all time (which is now recognized as an Upper West Side street name).
Perhaps even more interesting, though, is the thought of Westside Market potentially opening across the street from Zabar’s, an icon of the grocery industry far and wide. If that happens, one thing’s for sure: there’s gonna be a lot of cheese.
Westside Market currently has UWS locations at 2589 Broadway (between 97th and 98th streets) and 2840 Broadway (at West 110th Street).
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That would be a huge upgrade to the neighborhood! I stopped shopping at Staples when their LA store refused service to a Black Jewish woman. No follow up action or comments from Staples.
Many thanks to Dorian Thornley for bringing up, and to Bobby Panza for publishing, the building’s “Sesame Street” connection. It had been quite a while since I’d thought about that, something I learned of in my first week as a New Yorker. It calls for a plaque: BIG BIRD BORN HERE.
Many thanks to Dorian Thornley for bringing up, and to Bobby Panza for publishing, the building’s “Sesame Street” connection. It had been quite a while since I’d thought about that, something I learned of in my first week as a New Yorker.
It calls for a plaque: BIG BIRD BORN HERE.
Sesame Street spouts conventional rightist thinking. Yes, really, even if it’s sort of gay friendly. It was okay with the Iraq invasion 22 years ago.
More generally, it conditions thinking for a “right answer”, which isn’t close being correct in many instances. No, I’m not saying there’s no point in learning the difference between whether and weather.
Henson’s “Muppets Show” (including the first season of Saturday Night, Live) was much less conformist.
Go take a close look at the steam table foods available for sale at the Westside Market on 110th Street and Broadway. Then decide for yourself if that’s the kind of store and staff you want preparing fish, steak, chicken, pork, other beef dishes, then move over to the fresh produce salad and sandwich bar and decide if that’s the quality of the food you’d want to serve yourself and your family.
Many thanks to Dorian Thornley for bringing up, and to Bobby Panza for publishing, the building’s “Sesame Street” connection. It had been quite a while since I’d thought about that, something I learned of in my first week as a New Yorker. It calls for a plaque: BIG BIRD BORN HERE.
t is clear to anyone who patronizes Staples that they simply don’t have the customer base to support a three-floor store. With the exception of ore-school sales, there are rarely more than a dozen or two dozen people in the store at any given time. So while I would be sad to see them go, it wouldn’t surprise me.
I am actually more concerned about the Starbucks on that corner, which has been my home store (and “home” is the word) since they opened. They have a wonderful staff, and this location would be SORELY missed it it closes.
BTW, this was the site of the original Reeves Teletape Studio, where I used to go see That’s Life (with Robert Morse) being taped when I was a kid. My favorite moment was when Goldie Hawn (then in her Laugh-In days), who was that evening’s guest star, kissed me on the lips after the performance. (I was ~10). It was a truly memorable moment.