City Seeks Nonprofit Partner To Acquire Garment District Space

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The city is seeking a partner to play a major role in a plan to protect the fashion manufacturing industry in the Garment District, officials announced this week.

The city Economic Development Corporation released a Request for Expressions of Interest on Thursday in order to find a partner willing to acquiring and operating a space in the Garment District that will become a dedicated fashion manufacturing space, the agency announced. As part of a plan proposed in June, the city is committing $20 million toward the acquisition costs for the facility.

"Providing financial support for the acquisition of a Garment Center building dedicated to garment production is fundamental to our commitment to fashion design and manufacturing both in Midtown and across the city," said Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen said in a statement.

The space that is acquired by the city and its partner will be used to provide affordable, long-term leases to fashion manufacturing businesses, city officials said. The city hopes to partner with a nonprofit "aligned with the mission of fashion manufacturing stability and growth" in the Garment District, according to a press release.

The city hopes that having a dedicated space for fashion manufacturers in the district — which spans several blocks from West 35th to West 40th streets located west of Broadway — will provide stability to a garment industry that has been moving away from the Midtown neighborhood.

"To truly ensure New York City’s garment manufacturers always have a home in the Garment Center, acquiring a building is crucial," Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said in a statement. "This component of the Garment Center plan is vital to the industry as well as the city, because the entire New York fashion world depends on having an accessible, skilled, local manufacturing base."

Nonprofits interested in partnering with the city may submit their bids between Nov.2, 2018 and Nov. 1, 2019, city officials said. An information session about the Request for Expressions of Interest will be held at the city Economic Development Corporation's offices at 110 William St. on Thursday, Oct. 25.

The acquisition of a building for dedicated fashion manufacturing space is just one part of a city plan designed to keep the industry afloat in Midtown.

The main component of the plan is the Garment Center IDA program, a tax incentive through the New York City Industrial Development Agency which allows landlords to benefit from offering long-term leases to fashion manufacturers. Landlords can cash in on the incentives by offering 15-year leases at $35 per square foot to any business involved in the garment production supply chain such as pattern-making, embroidery an dyeing, according to the EDC.

City officials also proposed striking zoning protections passed in the 1980s that required Garment District landlords to maintain a 1:1 ratio of garment manufacturing space compared to space for other uses, such as residential or retail. City officials claimed that the zoning protections actually failed to protect garment manufacturing businesses.

Read more about the Garment District plan here.

Photo by Kevin Foy/REX/Shutterstock