303 West 42nd Street; Rendering credit: SWA Architecture
Times Square’s once-raunchiest location may soon be redeveloped into a sleek new hotel tower. Renderings published by SWA Architecture show a sleek new hotel tower replacing an L-shaped collection of buildings on Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street. The renderings are likely outdated but do show the possible size of what could rise from the lot.
The site’s landowner is Times Square’s legendary, “Sultan of smut,” Richard Basciano who passed at the age of 91 this May. According to the Times, Basciano’s “spic-and-span smut shop,” was once described as "the McDonald’s of the sex industry" and came complete with a stripper carousel. His death throws into question what will happed to the long-coveted property which could be worth well over $100 million. Last year, Basciano
told Crain’s that Show World is going to close. “This real estate is very valuable,” he tells the paper.
The 16,700 square-foot site includes Basciano’s diminished adult emporium, Show World, a 12-story apartment/office building and smaller buildings that are home to the New York Arts Center theaters. In 2008, the then-project manager of the site, Thomas Simonds, told the Post that the lot has nearly 300,000 buildable square feet.
The two-story Duane Reade anchoring the corner of Eighth and 42nd Street is not part of the assemblage and has a lease up until December 2021, according to the New York Observer. The pharmacy’s building is owned by Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties and is said to be worth more than $100M due to its high-rent location and unused air rights that could be transfered next door to Basciano's site. The owners recently filed an application with the city to erect a large LED sign overlooking the heavily-trafficked intersection.
Wharton Properties' Duane Reade building at 661 Eighth Avenue with Basciano's L-shaped assemblage behind
Proposed signage size Wharton Properties is seeking permission to erect
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