Renowned Discounter Announces Imminent Return to Storied Temple of Commerce
The family behind the iconic shopping brand Century 21 has announced that the Platonic ideal of off-priced luxury retail will return to its longtime sanctuary at 25 Church Street (between Cortland and Dey Streets) “in early spring” of this year.
“Century 21 is, and always will be, a New York City brand,” reflects Raymond Gindi, the company’s co-chief executive officer. “Our flagship store has been a long-time symbol of this City’s resilience and unwavering spirit. In our 60-year history, we have only closed our doors twice—once after the devastation of September 11, and then again during the COVID-19 pandemic. But like the true New Yorkers we are, we have persevered. We could not be more excited to bring Century 21 back home.”
For the relaunch of Century 21, the Gindi family are partnering with Legends Hospitality, a food, beverage, merchandise, and destination retail management firm that has a significant footprint in Lower Manhattan, where it operates One World Observatory, at the top of One World Trade Center. The firm was also part of a plan to launch a new food hall and music venue at 28 Liberty Street, which was to surround “Sunken Garden”—a 60-foot-wide, circular enclosure created by sculptor Isamu Noguchi, that frames a bed of polished stones and a fountain, beneath the landmarked two-acre public deck at the base of the archetypal Modernist skyscraper once known as One Chase Manhattan Plaza. That plan was put on indefinite hold during the COVID pandemic. Legends was additionally a partner in the now-abandoned plan to create an 80,000-square-foot concert and performance venue on the former trading floor of the American Stock Exchange building, in the Financial District.
The re-opened Century 21 will span the four main floors of the original Downtown space and will offer men’s, women’s and children’s designer apparel, footwear, outerwear, handbags, accessories, and fragrances. Legends will help the Gindis devise an enhanced shopping experience in-store and online, according to a statement from the partnership.
Century 21 was founded in 1961 by Al Gindi and his cousin, Samuel (“Sonny”) Gindi, who set up shop in the palatial former home of the East River Savings Bank at the corner and Church and Cortland Streets (seen here in the 1950s), and took their new venture’s name from the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, which styled itself the “Century 21 Exposition.” That event focused on the theme of how Americans would live come the millennium, but its predictions did not include an epochal pandemic, or the retail-pocalypse spurred by the rise of online shopping.
In the years that followed, the Gindi’s (who called their emporium “the store of the future” and eventually adopted the slogan “New York’s Best Kept Secret”) used their newfound wealth to acquire a vast portfolio of Lower Manhattan property. The second and third generations of the family began liquidating these Downtown holdings a decade ago. In 2012, they sold a portfolio of more than a dozen buildings scattered throughout Lower Manhattan (including 20 John Street, Eight & Ten Liberty Street, 20 Beaver Street, 53 Nassau Street and 122 Nassau Street) for $164 million, and in 2013 they sold 287 Broadway for $8 million. The following year, the family unloaded three more buildings on Nassau Street for an additional $46 million. Much of the proceeds from these sales went to building a portfolio of 2.5 million square feet of retail, office and industrial space throughout the New York tri-state area, along with purchasing and development properties around the United States (in California, Texas, Nevada, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania).
But the center of the local Gindi empire always remained the former East River Savings Bank building, at 25 Church Street—a 43,000-square-foot structure, that once connected to five other adjacent buildings, forming a 250,000-square-feet complex of retail space and offices.
When Century 21 ceased operations and entered bankruptcy in the fall of 2020, the adjoining annexes, which were rented, were separated from the 25 Church Street space, which the Gindi family owns. The first step toward reopening came when the family repurchased the Century 21 brand name and logo during bankruptcy proceedings, for a reported $9 million.