[Thursday evening in Tompkins Square Park]
Posts this past week included...
Mount Sinai Beth Israel offers more details on new East Village hospital, plans for the former Rivington House (Tuesday)
Report: Mayor unleashes the "Green Wave Bicycle Plan" to address increase in cycling fatalities, make streets safer (Friday)
Bartender files federal complaint against Bar None for harassment (Thursday)
NYPD looking for suspect who forced his way into woman's apartment near 12th and A (Saturday)
Ruby’s Cafe bringing its Australian vibes to the former Martina space on 11th Street (Monday)
The new fence at La Plaza is officially complete (Friday)
RIP Paul Krassner (Monday)
Curiosity about the anonymous buyer behind the sale of the Boys' Club Harriman Clubhouse (Wednesday)
This week's NY See (Thursday)
The M14A tops the slow-bus charts (Tuesday)
You may now book a room for October at the Moxy East Village (Wednesday)
787 Coffee and Calexico now open on 2nd Avenue (Saturday)
1st of 2 Flamingos Vintage Pound shops has opened in the East Village (Monday)
The Village East screening Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood" in 70mm (Wednesday)
Old Fashioned Pizza coming to 13th Street (Thursday)
Soft opening for Craft+Carry on St. Mark's Place (Friday)
Pizza Rollio has closed on 9th Street (Tuesday)
Sorbet Cray Cray debuts on Avenue A (Thursday)
Nolita Pizza now serving up slices on 2nd Avenue (Monday)
That's all for Bruno Pizza, which has been closed fire upstairs last November (Monday)
Chinese Graffiti has not been open lately on Avenue A (Tuesday)
14th St. Candy & Grocery has not been open lately on 14th Street (Monday)
... and thanks to the readers (h/t @Jason_Chatfield!) who pointed out the freshly pained awning at the newish cafe Bin 141 on Avenue A and Third Street...
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I’m not sure I agree with everything this guy says, but Mark Miller, owner of Hex & Co on the Upper West Side, knows real estate, and as a retail operator has an interesting perspective on the state of New York City retail and why there are so many empty stores. And it has nothing to do with tax breaks. This video, produced by the Disappearing NYC Facebook group, might be worth a post of its own.
ReplyDeleteWhy There Are So Many Empty Stores
Interesting video. The guy is full of shit, though.
ReplyDeleteHe says that the city government does things which please renters, which is silly. It does things to please the largest real-estate developers. This is so well documented that's it's breath-taking to hear someone say the reverse with a straight face and just leave it at that.
He complains about property taxes paid by small business and blames renters. Wrong people to blame. People who live in multiple-family dwellings, including renters, pay a disproportionately HIGH amount of property taxes. The lowest property taxes are paid by homeowners in the outer boroughs. And, of course, there are numerous tax breaks afforded to large landlords.
And, finally, he proclaims it a "myth" that landlords warehouse commercial spaces, and that the reason so many commercial spaces are vacant is that it's hard to find good tenants.
But there didn't used to be so many vacant commercial spaces. What changed? What changed is that the landlords are now charging too much and think that if they can hold out long enough, they'll find some magic tenants.
Long story short: Too many landlords are stupid. That's the reason. And, the big landlords tend to be way stupider than the small ones because they have the financial cushion, and the political power, to survive on pure (ill-gotten) muscle.
@DrGecko. I agree. While he’s very knowledgeable about real estate, he still sounds like he’s taking the side of big real estate, even though he now runs a retail operation after having spent may years in the real estate business. I noticed that the biggest flaw in his argument is that his store is running 5 different businesses inside of one, and that not one of those businesses could afford to pay the rent as a stand-alone retailer. He has probably spent too many years in the real estate industry to see what really going on, which as you say is a surplus of stupid (and greedy) landlords.
ReplyDelete