Empty NYC retail spaces cast pall on key shopping corridors

Madison Avenue nonetheless reels from the losses of Barneys, Brooks Brothers and Harman Kardon.
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There’s “rising demand from a various vary of shops” for Manhattan storefronts, the Actual Property Board of New York crows in its spring 2022 survey of retail exercise. The declare could be true, however rising demand doesn’t instantly or essentially translate into an enormous discount within the variety of vacant shops.

The metrics for the previous six months cited by REBNY positively present enchancment. Common asking rents per sq. foot in 9 of 17 main procuring corridors grew from the autumn of 2021 — suggesting that the market is stabilizing after two years of declining rents.

Soho and higher Madison Avenue are seeing curiosity  from excessive vogue, sportswear and residential decor firms.

One yr in the past, most massive new leases had been for meals and beverage and health customers. A brand new, 14,000-square-foot Swarovski lease at 680 Fifth Ave. not solely fills a long-dark area, however represents a transfer upmarket from the Hole outlet that beforehand crammed the three-level venue.

The closing of Century 21 — which supposedly will reopen with a lot much less area subsequent yr — solid a pall throughout from the World Commerce Heart.

Linda Obuchoska

The Brooks Brothers flagship that was previously on Madison Avenue.

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One other massive reclamation at a protracted darkish location is Taiwanese eatery Din Tai Fung’s 26,400-square-foot deal at 1633 Broadway. The Michelin-starred noodles-and-dumplings mecca, to be designed by David Rockwell, presumably will draw a extra subtle clientele than tourist-trap Mars 2112, which closed 100 years early in 2012.

REBNY credit the fitful restoration to rising shopper demand and an increase in guests to the town regardless of Omicron, larger transportation prices and worries about crime.

Even so, it'd  be a very long time earlier than Manhattan’s retail scene totally rebounds from the one-two punch of the pandemic and the net procuring revolution that started taking a toll earlier than anybody heard of COVID-19.

For all the brand new leases, retailer home windows in lots of Manhattan areas — residential and business — stay filled with “Prime Retail House” indicators.

The REBNY doesn’t cite retail emptiness charges, that are lined in a separate report later within the yr. It emphasizes as an alternative that asking rents have ticked upward or a minimum of held their very own within the varied corridors.

However as my colleague Kerry Byrne wrote not too long ago, lengthy slices of Broadway look deserted at sidewalk degree. Whereas its Soho portion thrives (together with the remainder of Soho), Broadway south of Canal Road has valuable few precise shops past hair salons and some funky artwork galleries.

It could be a very long time earlier than Manhattan’s retail scene totally rebounds.

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Madison Avenue nonetheless reels from the losses of Barneys, Brooks Brothers and most not too long ago, Harman Kardon.  Empty home windows hang-out pedestrians, particularly within the East 60s.

Vacant storefronts really outnumber crammed ones in components of the FiDi space. The closing of Century 21 — which supposedly will reopen with a lot much less area subsequent yr — solid a pall throughout from the World Commerce Heart. Fulton Road can boast of thriving Brookfield Place and the rejuvenated South Road Seaport at its east and west  ends, however between them lies a miserable sea of vacancies. Even neighborhood fast-food locations and shoe-repair retailers closed and have but to get replaced.

So whereas it’s professional to say that a nascent restoration  is going down, let nobody suppose that each one these “for hire” indicators will disappear quickly.