“It’s more than a toy store, this location, it’s an attraction in and of itself,” Ms. Saibel said.

“We have a Toys ‘R’ Us near our house,” her mother, Mindy Saibel, said of her home in West Orange, N.J. “It’s not the same.”

Toys “R” Us occupied that 110,000-square-foot space since 2001, making it among the first retailers to brave Times Square when memories of peep shows past were not so distant. The store’s lease will expire in January, and the company decided not to renew to save money on rent, said Elizabeth Gaerlan, director of corporate communications for the retailer. She said the company, which has 17 Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us locations in the New York City region, is looking for another Manhattan location.

The savings are likely to be substantial. C. Bradley Mendelson, a vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, which is leasing the property for its owner, Bow Tie Partners, said the going rate for just the ground floor space that Toys “R” Us occupied would be about $42 million a year. Toys “R” Us also occupied a lower level, a second floor and a mezzanine.

“A store that size would get a reasonable discount, but it’s still too much money for any one store to pay,” Mr. Mendelson said. “No one can afford that much space in Times Square today.”

Mr. Mendelson said Toys “R” Us was paying about half the market rate.

In its place, Gap Inc. will open a Gap and an Old Navy flagship. Mr. Mendelson said Gap Inc. would take over about 60 percent of the Toys “R” Us space; the rest has yet to be leased.