Primark, a nearly 500‑store fast‑fashion retailer founded in Ireland in 1969, has opened its first location in Manhattan, marking a key step in its U.S. expansion.
As part of a marketing campaign, the Empire State Building was lit up Thursday in the retailer’s signature aqua color. The lighting underscored the splashy significance of the arrival, a bit of New York fanfare typically reserved for major cultural or civic moments.
The debut comes as Herald Square — long one of New York’s most prominent retail districts — shows fresh signs of recovery after lagging other corridors and losing major tenants such as Uniqlo and Forever 21.
Primark on Friday opened a four‑level store at 150 W. 34th St., occupying a full block between West 33rd and 34th streets across from Penn Station, the country's busiest transportation hub. Primark signed a 77,760‑square‑foot lease for the space in 2024 with landlord Vornado Realty Trust, according to CoStar data.
The building previously housed Gap’s discount chain Old Navy. The opening marks Primark’s sixth store in New York and its 40th store across 13 U.S. states since entering the U.S. market in 2015 with a flagship in Boston, where its U.S. operation is also based. Primark’s first New York store opened on Staten Island in 2017.
Primark is owned by Associated British Foods, a U.K.‑based conglomerate that traces its roots to a bakery founded in 1935 before evolving into a global group of food and apparel businesses.
“We're aware this is the fashion capital of the world, so it was always about the right opportunity in the right place for us to be able to do something in Manhattan,” Kevin Tulip, Primark’s U.S. president, said in an interview. He added the retailer is seeing “very good results” from its New York locations in Brooklyn and Queens.
“New York's very important to us … at the moment, really the most important market that we're focusing on,” Tulip said. “We have our biggest collection of stores here. We've had the most growth here. … Our growth plans are fairly cautious. We're not just signing deals and opening stores anywhere. We really do our homework.”
Tulip said Primark is also seeing “very strong performance” in other U.S. markets, including Florida.
Rebound in Herald Square
Primark’s latest store coincides with signs of a rebound in Herald Square, the New York shopping district that trailed other corridors after the pandemic. The neighborhood is known as being home to Macy’s iconic flagship.
For instance, TJ Maxx signed a lease spanning 40,000 square feet, its first new deal in more than a decade in New York, at Herald Towers at 50 W. 34th St., where Gap’s Old Navy also is relocating.
Herald Square sits adjacent to Vornado’s mixed-use Penn District surrounding the Penn Station transit hub. Vornado has named Newmark as exclusive leasing agent for its Penn District retail portfolio as CEO Steven Roth has said the firm is repositioning what he described as “junky retail” along Seventh Avenue between West 33rd and 34th streets. Roth has framed the effort as a broader transformation of the gateway area.
The 34th Street stretch between Fifth and Seventh avenues saw its first-quarter retail availability rate decline to 32.2% from 35.6% a year earlier, the worst-performing among major Manhattan shopping corridors, according to a Cushman & Wakefield study. In contrast, Manhattan’s average dropped to a record low of 10.8%.
Herald Square’s asking rents last quarter rose 4.1% from a year earlier and were 25.4% higher than in the first quarter of 2021, driven by higher rents for corner spaces, the brokerage found.
Mix of locals, commuters and tourists
Tulip declined to provide financial projections for the Manhattan location, except to say Primark has “high expectations” for the store, steps from the rail station that sees more than 600,000 daily commuters.
“I'm very excited about the foot traffic levels that we'll have around here,” Tulip, a 25-year company veteran after starting with the chain in the United Kingdom at age 16 as a part-time store employee. Coming out of Penn Station, “the first thing that [people will] be seeing on 33rd Street and 34th Street is a brand-new Primark store. ... This area is a big tourist destination. … The mix of locals, commuters and tourism in this area is fantastic, even if other retailers have moved out.”
To be sure, the opening comes soon after Primark posted mixed results. Associated British Foods CEO George Weston said in April the company is “managing the impacts of the Middle East conflict” and expects “the cost consequences in 2026 to be manageable,” but warned that “there is a risk to Primark sales if the conflict persists and consumer spending deteriorates.”
Primark’s sales in France, Italy and Northern Europe, together representing some 28% of its business, declined in the first half of fiscal 2026, while the U.K. and Ireland, 45% of its sales, rose 2%. U.S. sales, 6% of Primark’s total, jumped 12% as the retailer expands its footprint in the market. By the end of the year, the store count in the country is expected to rise to more than 50, Tulip told CoStar.
Focus on value, marketing
Primark faces competition from brick-and-mortar rivals such as H&M as well as online sellers such as China’s Shein, analysts have said. Unlike many competitors, Primark does not sell online in the United States — its only online ordering is a click‑and‑collect service available in the United Kingdom, a company spokesperson told CoStar News.
“For the U.S. consumer, there’s a huge pull towards value,” said Tulip, noting Primark has an average price point of about $10. Wearing an outfit entirely from Primark that he said cost roughly $100, Tulip added, “If you can’t shop with us online, we need to be top of mind in people's faces around the value that we offer. … That's the opportunity that's ahead of us. … Most of our growth in Europe has literally been through word of mouth over a longer period of time. … We haven't had that yet in the U.S. We're starting to build it now.”
To accelerate brand awareness, Primark has invested in a U.S. marketing push around the Manhattan opening, including billboards and subway and bus ads. It’s a departure from the company’s typical strategy of relying primarily on social media, Tulip told CoStar.
The store’s design is meant to stand out along the crowded stretch of 34th Street that also includes Target, Victoria’s Secret, Sephora and Crocs.
Gensler, the architecture firm that designed the space, introduced an arched facade with “a punchy pop of Primark’s signature aqua,” drawing inspiration from the former Penn Arcade pedestrian passage that once occupied the site, said Jonathan Tyler, a principal and retail leader at the firm.
“In a busy retail row, the facade delivers Primark’s striking branding across the wide vista of 34th Street and gives the building a new identity,” Tyler said in an email.
The store also introduced a first for Primark in the United States: a 350‑square‑foot third‑floor “press room,” a showroom‑style space designed to host content creators, journalists, partners and special guests, a nod to Herald Square’s history as a center of publishing and media, he said.