Private Equity-owned Companies in Times Square 

1411 Broadway

Private equity owners: Bain Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and Vornado Realty Trust

Owned by private equity since: 2005

Deal value: $6.6 billion

Employees: 63,000

“[W]hen...you buy toys for your kids at Toys “R” Us, you’re interacting with private equity,” Private Equity Council President Douglas Lowenstein told Congress in a March 2007 hearing, making a point about the many ways in which private equity touches American lives. It is also true that if you buy toys at Toys “R” Us, there is a good chance that you are interacting with what has been reported to be a sweatshop production model. On private equity’s watch, Toys “R” Us has reportedly been stocking its shelves with toys made by young, predominantly female, workers in China, toiling 11 to 12 hours per day, seven days per week. The conditions of toy factories however, are far from view at the company’s “international flagship store” in Times Square, which the company bills as “The Center of the Toy Universe.” As you check out the 60-foot Ferris Wheel, a 20-foot animatronic T-Rex dinosaur, lifesize Barbie dollhouse, or the New York City skyline constructed entirely of LEGOs, remember life isn’t all fun and games for the men and women who work at Toys R Us. Just a year after the buyout, Toys “R” Us laid off 3,000 workers. By contrast, KKR., Bain, and Vornado collectively took more than $75 million in transaction fees from the $6.6 billion deal, and each year pocket more than $15 million in management fees.