Sign of the Times: Ecko losing NYC storefront

Article written by: Jacob Breinholt
Posted on: June 24, 2009

The closing of Marc Ecko’s “Cut & Sew,” a brand boutique located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, is the latest in a recent series of cutbacks by the streetwear design house. Earlier this year, Ecko broke its lease on a large retail space in Times Square. According to the New York Post, the store was scheduled to become a three story flagship mega-store for the Ecko brand. Apparently, Ecko sat on the Times Square property for over four years, without being able to advance the progress past the planning stages.

A few weeks prior to backing out of the Times Square location, Ecko abruptly mothballed it’s warehouse location on 6th avenue in New York City.

In March of 2009, Ecko retained the services of Peter J. Solomon, in an attempt to refinance its $170 million in debt. In a March 2009 New York Post article, it was reported that Ecko had already defaulted on a term loan from CIT. In response to this, Ecko’s chief marketing officer, Michael Golden, told the post “We’re pretty confident that this isn’t an issue that’s life-threatening at all … In our case, we have more than enough assets to pay off that term loan, and we have more than enough time.”

Despite the apparent confidence that Golden alluded to, Ecko reportedly began trying to find tenants to sublease portions of its sprawling space in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood.

The closure of “Cut & Sew,” a boutique retail space, is the most recent visible indication that Ecko is continuing to struggle. According to the New York Post, the CIT term loan (on which Ecko defaulted) will remain in forbearance until next month. If Ecko fails to raise the necessary capital by then, it appears that the only options may be bankruptcy or liquidation of it’s remaining assets, to satisfy creditors.