Pants Off Dance Off: Banana Republic vs. the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Soho


[Image via Scalleja/Flickr]

Broadway in Soho: Great location for a national officewear company, not so good for a modern dance company. Yesterday's Times took a long look at the struggle over 552 Broadway (between Prince and Spring), where an expanding Banana Republic is booting one of Soho's last remaining cultural institutions.

The building is owned by a Holocaust survivor named Milton Steinberg who bought it for about $435,000 in 1966. "My wife took out the last dollar from what she saved up" to pay, he told the Times. In 1987, Steinberg leased his second floor to the Paul Taylor Company, which was already a major player in the modern dance world. Now, the Banana Republic on the first floor wants to move upward, and the dance company, which was paying $360,000 a year, just can't match their offer. "This was where work got done, not where people shopped," Taylor's general manager said. Not anymore.
· A Clothing Shop Moves Up, and a Dance Company Must Move Out [NYT]For more stories from Racked, go to racked.com.

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