Nearly One-Fifth Of Bleecker Street Storefronts Are Vacant, Report Says

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Like much of Manhattan, local businesses in the West Village and surrounding neighborhoods have repeatedly given way to chain stores: A 183-year-old pharmacy replaced by a Sweetgreen; a local men's clothing store that gave way to a Verizon retailer; a Foot Locker in the space previously occupied by a Shakespeare & Co. bookstore.

These transitions are all among those cited in state senator Brad Hoylman's new report, which analyzes the business turnover throughout the West Village, Chelsea and parts of the East Village. Hoylman, who represents multiple neighborhoods in Manhattan, released the analysis last week to examine "high-rent blight," the term coined to explain the unusual reality of vacant Manhattan storefronts. Typically, a pattern of vacant stores is a sign of economic depression, but in prosperous lower Manhattan neighborhoods, vacant storefronts result from landlords content to leave their property vacant while waiting for a higher-paying tenant. The oft-repeated pattern — local business shuts down after landlord increase the rent — causes dozens of stores to sit empty in the years before a new retailer moves in.

Hoylman's analysis reviewed storefront vacancies in April 2016 and 2017 on four main commercial corridors in the East Village, West Village and Chelsea. In 2017, an average of 10 percent of storefronts sat empty, according to Hoylman's report. The issue is particularly noticeable on Bleecker Street in the West Village, where more than 18 percent of storefronts were empty when Hoylman's staff conducted their survey.

"Bleecker Street is a cautionary tale of how high rents in the Village and Chelsea are pushing out longtime independent business," Hoylman said in a statement. "We can't simply allow market forces to run roughshod over our community any longer."

In the last year alone, neighborhood favorites like Po and Good have both closed. Hoylman recommended a number of steps to address vacant storefronts, like eliminating the commercial rent tax and establishing a legacy business registry. (For more news from the West Village Patch, subscribe to Patch news alerts here.)

This post has been updated.

Lead image via Ciara McCarthy / Patch.