The New York City Transit Authority has filed a lawsuit against Westfield Corp. to prevent it from terminating its operations at the lower Manhattan commuter hub Fulton Center less than halfway into its 20-year lease.
Fulton Center currently has 68 retail tenants. Bloomberg reported Westfield wants to exit from the Fulton Center because the location did not “work for” the mall operator, adding the center had become “financially unsustainable.” Westfield was awarded the operating rights in December 2013 and the hub opened nearly a year later as part of the effort to attract developers and tenants back to lower Manhattan following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the parent company of Westfield, has been selling off its U.S. assets following the Covid-19 pandemic’s deleterious impact on the retail sector. While the company’s Fulton Center lease enables an early termination under limited physical circumstances such as structural defects at the property, the transit authority insisted “none of those currently apply” in this circumstance.
“Westfield’s unauthorized cessation of its operations and termination of the lease would adversely affect not only the retail establishments in Fulton Center that Westfield subleased, but also members of the transit public who are customers of these retail outlets,” the transit authority said in its lawsuit.
Photo: Ajay Suresh / Wikimedia Commons
;
