Despite what you might think, Virgin Times Square never stopped turning a profit. What happened was the new "landlords" (which are actually a large corporation) discovered that they could charge ten times the amount of dollars-per-sqaure-foot for that real estate location (1540 Broadway), and THAT is when Virgin said "Hey, if we have to pay THAT much in rent, we won't be able to turn a profit".


Indeed. Rent price is often the biggest factor and I know of a number of successful businesses that have closed simply because the rent was being raised.

It didn't help that Virgin often picked the biggest and most sought after spaces. The Union Square location is prime real estate.