The eco-friendly pizza food truck touted by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Texas energy magnate T. Boone Pickens is getting its own slice of real estate in Times Square.
Neapolitan Express signed a lease for a brick-and-mortar store at 1691 Broadway, next door to the Ed Sullivan Theater, home to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Brandon Singer and Michael Cody represented the tenant while Michael Kadosh and Jesse Wolff of CBRE represented the landlord, Broadway Sky, LLC in the deal.
The location is not Neapolitan Express’ first brick-and-mortar store; in 2014, the restaurant signed leases for locations in Harlem, at 232 East 111th Street and the Financial District, at 40 Wall Street. They still operate a fleet of thirty trucks that can be found in locations on the Upper East Side, Midtown, and the Financial District.
Founded in 2012 by Max Crespo and promoted by Bloomberg and Pickens, the truck was touted as the first-ever eco-friendly food truck powered by clean energy, according to the company’s website.
Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels supplies the compressed natural gas that power the trucks. The business also uses organic, non-GMO ingredients in its commitment to a “cleaner, greener planet.”
At a press conference in 2013 during the launch, Bloomberg said the truck produces almost 75 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than those that run on gas and diesel.
The restaurant eschews traditional coal and wood-burning ovens typically used for Italian pizza, instead using open mouth electric ovens designed and made in Italy to reach 900 degrees with zero emissions.
The technique cooks the pies, which go for between $8 and $15, in 90 seconds.
