Central Perk coffee shop from ‘Friends’ to open as pop-up in Times Square

Manhattan’s biggest little retail corner will have a lot of “Friends” this year. The glass-wrapped, rounded corner of 701 Seventh Ave., aka 20 Times Square, has been vacant since the building opened at the corner of West 47th Street eight years ago, despite its prime location next to the Edition Times Square Hotel.

But it will soon house a Warner Brothers re-creation of the Central Perk coffee shop in the TV sitcom, “Friends,” offering a “unique immersive retail and cafe experience,” according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The pop-up is part of a strategy by Cushman, which was tapped to market the property’s 49,000 square feet of retail space — including, the under-3,000 square-foot ground-floor corner. Retailers and food merchants have shunned it over its unusual shape and the fact that it was often blocked behind a half-dozen giant hot dog stands.

The building’s asset and property managers, GreenBarn Investment Group and Newbond Holdings, hope the “Friends” mock-up will alert retailers to the corner site’s potential for long-term use.

 

Central Perk coffee shop from ‘Friends’ to open as pop-up in Times Square

701 Seventh Ave., aka 20 Times Square,

Stay tuned in for opening day.