New Data Shows Scope Of Park Slope's Vacant Storefronts

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Park Slopers have long known that vacant storefronts have blighted their neighborhood's usually vibrant streets, particularly amid the coronavirus crisis' devastating toll on local businesses.

Recently-released data now reveals just how severe the trend has become.

The new data shows the lease status of every ground-floor and second-floor commercial space in the five boroughs through a database created after a 2019 law required landlords to register their retail spaces — part of a push by the City Council to get a handle on vacancies.

After being delayed by the pandemic, the long-awaited database was published this month.

Though the most recent data is from June 2020, it still provides a snapshot of the city's vacancies, including in Park Slope.

In particular, it reveals a neighborhood-wide picture of the empty storefronts. Given a lack of Business Improvement Districts on many corridors, data had previously only existed for main streets like Fifth Avenue. Patch has also studied vacancies on Seventh Avenue.

Comparing Numbers

In Park Slope — within the 11215 and 11217 ZIP codes — 228 storefronts were not leased as of last June, the data shows. The ZIP codes also include parts of Gowanus and Boerum Hill.

Surprisingly, the figure is actually less than the 231 storefronts that were vacant in the neighborhood as of December 2019. Those numbers indicate that the coronavirus crisis, at least at its start, may not have increased vacancies neighborhood-wide as they did on main commercial corridors like Fifth Avenue.

A Patch study in October 2020 found that the pandemic had more than doubled Fifth Avenue's vacancies, spiking the corridor's vacancy rates above Recession-level highs.

For comparison, the ZIP code covering the majority of Downtown Brooklyn, 11201, there were 144 empty storefronts as of June 2020.

Over in Manhattan, Harlem had 416 unleased storefronts, the Upper West Side had 183 and the Upper East Side had 435, according to the database.

But it is important to note that the city data remains incomplete.

Certain storefronts that the Fifth Avenue BID found were vacant throughout 2020, like 191 or 234 Fifth Ave., do not appear in the city data.

In all, only 36 vacancies on Fifth Avenue were recorded in the new data while the BID counted 66, though some of those may have become vacant between the time of the counts in June and October.

Some addresses appear twice in the database, likely signifying one building has two unleased storefronts or a secondary or second-floor unit vacancy.

The vacancy list also does not include the names of landlords that keep the properties vacant.

There is, however, a push by elected officials to force building owners to reveal their names rather than hiding behind anonymous LLCs — a move that would pressure them into leasing their storefronts.

Vacancy Hotspots

On a street level in Park Slope, main corridors Seventh and Fifth Avenue, have by far the most vacancies in the neighborhood. Both have 36 empty storefronts counted in the city data.

Other avenues with a large number of closures in the ZIP codes include Atlantic Avenue in Prospect Heights and Third Avenue, which both had 15 empty storefronts. Flatbush Avenue, with 11 vacancies in June 2020, also saw many closures.

Across Brooklyn, experts say that Park Slope has been one of the lucky ones amid the financial strain of the coronavirus crisis.

Factors like BIDs, Open Streets and being in a wealthier neighborhood where residents have more disposable income mean places like Park Slope are quicker to rebound from the vacancy crisis than other lower-income neighborhoods without the same support, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Randy Peers has told Patch.

That was true in the springtime when Patch checked in with Fifth Avenue's vacancies. At that time, 14 new businesses had opened on Fifth Avenue since Patch's last count in October. That number is three times higher than the number of full storefronts that became vacant during that time.

The new count, which includes storefronts from Dean Street to 18th Street, means the corridor's vacancy rate has dropped a few percentage points since its 13-percent high in the fall of 2020.

Here's a look at all 228 storefronts marked vacant in June 2020:

Patch reporters Gus Saltonstall and Nick Garber contributed to this report.