Times Square shines even brighter as ball-drop tower gets upgrade, offices fill up

Times Square’s candle is burning brightly at both ends.

At the 42nd Street “Crossroads of the World,” the 30-story 3 Times Square is bouncing back from its near-empty state at the start of the pandemic.

A new law firm lease just brought the 30-story tower to 60% full, an impressive feat in a weak market.

Across the street, the formerly blank-faced (and mostly empty) ball-drop building known as 1 Times Square is being re-clad with top-to-bottom glass by owner Jamestown and transformed into a public-friendly museum and visitors’ center.

Meanwhile, at the north end of the bowtie, massive light installations on the new TSX Hilton Hotel tower and on the Edition hotel building across the street have turned the intersection of Broadway, Seventh Avenue and West 47th Street into perhaps the brightest corner  in the world.

At 3 Times Square, joint-venture owners Rudin and Thomson Reuters just signed international law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, which is taking 27,667 square feet on the entire 28th floor.

The firm is moving from the Grace Building two blocks east.

The firm’s  New York managing partner, Barry Benjamin, said the move “fits perfectly with who Kilpatrick is as a modern law firm.”

He cited the tower’s “exceptional functionality” and “gorgeous” views and added, “We will be able to take advantage of  numerous new and planned amenities” such as a fitness center and a tenants-only 16th floor dining and lounge area.

The tower’s nearly-completed $25 million upgrade program also includes a new, triple-height lobby with a sculptural facade screen, a touchless entry system, and state-of-the-art air filtration systems.

Rudin Management co-executive chairman Bill Rudin said, “We were near-empty when Thomson Reuters moved most of its operations out. But with all the new leases we’ve signed since then — including for Touro College, Remy Cointreau and Anchin, Block & Anchin — we brought it back to life.”