The NBA has signed a 20-year lease for 25,000 square feet of retail space at 45th Street and Fifth Ave. in Manhattan that will become the league’s flagship store within a year. The new NBA Store will open in time for the '15 holiday shopping season and be built in retail space that held a Michael C. Fina store for the past 15 years but is now unoccupied. The new NBA emporium will have three levels and be more than four times larger than the NBA Store that the league opened four years ago three blocks north on Fifth Ave. That retail location, which league officials have been calling “temporary” since it opened in October '11, will be shuttered in August when its lease expires. “We’ll try to bring as many elements of the game into this as possible, while still maximizing selling space," said NBA President of Global Operations & Merchandising Sal LaRocca. “I’m confident that when someone walks up to the store or is in the store, there will be no mistaking that it’s the NBA store." LaRocca said the NBA will take possession of the space within 30-60 days and hopes to begin renovation late this year or early in '15. As was the case with the other NBA Stores, design assistance will come from agency Gensler. Much of the design planning is still formative, but LaRocca said to expect more of a tie to e-commerce, in the form of shopping kiosks or possibly mobile checkout, whereby sales clerk would process transaction on tablets, ala the Apple stores. An event space at the new store is also planned. Given the NBA’s increasing popularity abroad, the league is hoping to make the new store more accessible to foreigners. “We have an opportunity to reinvent the way to present the overall brand to our global audience," LaRocca said. “The concept is to represent the greatest assortment of NBA products under one roof. ... It will present the NBA the way we want it presented."
