Kensington Empty Storefront Vacancies Drop: Comptroller

KENSINGTON, NY — Storefront spaces in Kensington, which once had among the highest retail vacancy rates in the city, have filled up in recent years, according to a new report.

Amid an uptick in the number of vacant storefront spaces over the past decades, Kensington's previously high retail vacancy rate has dropped, a report issued by Comptroller Scott Stringer showed. In 2007, Kensington had the second-highest retail vacancy rate in the city, according to the report. The neighborhood's retail spaces were 17 percent vacant, second only to west Staten Island, which had nearly a 30 percent vacancy rate.

The report, released Wednesday, detailed the retail vacancy landscape with 2017 data, which showed that Kensington no longer is atop the list of neighborhoods where retail vacancies are highest. (The report doesn't say what the vacancy rate was in 2017, however).

But elsewhere in the city, retail vacancies are up, Stringer found.

The comptroller blames the proliferation of online retailers like Amazon, rising rents and "regulatory burdens" in switching uses of retail spaces for the rise in vacant storefronts throughout the city in recent years.

Citywide, the retail vacancy rate in 20017 was 5.8 percent— up from 4 percent in 2007, according to the report.

The issue has over the past year sparked the attention of local lawmakers, who have mulled legislation aimed at assessing and ameliorating the perceived scourge of empty storefronts.

Last fall, the City Council held a hearing on the Small Business Job Survival Act— a bill that would add protections for businesses that had been put on ice. And in July, the City Council passed a bill that requires property owners to add their empty storefronts to a city registry.