The demolition of the iconic Macy’s billboard at Broadway and West 34th Street has been delayed as the department store and the owner of the billboard haggle over its future, The Post has learned.
As The Post exclusively reported, the four-story, red-and-white fixture was initially set to be destroyed the weekend of June 5.
“We are in discussions with Macy’s, no question about it,” said Ed Hart, chief executive of Kaufman Organization, which owns the building where the bag-shaped sign has been perched for more than 60 years.
Hart declined to go into detail on the talks, saying only, “There are a number of things in play.”
His firm erected scaffolding around the building – tucked into the cut-out corner of the Macy’s flagship – over the weekend of June 6. The scaffolding surrounds the Sunglass Hut store that has been in the retail space for decades.
Earlier this month, Macy’s acknowledged the imminent removal of the billboard.
“As the neighborhood continues to evolve, the current sign – while beloved – is outdated and will be removed as part of broader updates by the billboard owner to modernize the space,” the department store told The Post.
The company did not immediately comment about the delay.
The city’s Buildings Department said it has issued a permit to remove the old billboard, along with permits for two new signs to go up. The cost of removing the sign and putting a new one up will cost Kaufman $1.7 million, according to the documents.
A real estate executive described the situation as a “game of chicken” between Macy’s and Kaufman, which may have been caught off guard by the retailer’s public statement on the matter on June 5.
The billboard is of great importance to Macy’s.
The retailer sued Kaufman in 2021 when it believed that the real estate company was planning to splash an Amazon ad on the building after Macy’s lease for billboard space expired.
“To the naked eye, the billboard is on Macy’s department store and in its own right iconic,” the department store said in a complaint.
The company argued that an agreement it signed with the building’s owner in 1963 prevents the landlord from leasing the billboard to a competitor – a prohibition that lasts “forever,” according to the lawsuit.
Kaufman argued that it was not bound by such a clause. But the companies appear to have settled the complaint, because the shopping bag remained on the building for the next five years.
