C.B. 2 focuses on fi lling in the empty storefronts
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
The new Casper mattress flagship store on Mercer St — which also
has a Broadway entrance, above — is part of the new trend in “experiential”
retail: People can pay to take a nap there.
experimenting with this model.
Cordelia Persen, executive director
of the Noho BID, noted, “What you’ll
see in probably almost all our neighborhoods
is this rise in experiential shopping,
and so we have these big spaces
and they attract fun activities.”
Persen pointed to the recent addition
of the new Casper fl agship store,
on Mercer St. between W. Houston and
Bleecker Sts., which doesn’t just sell
mattresses but also offers customers a
place to nap for a fee. Persen said a few
other experiential retail stores were on
the way.
“That is really the future of retail, at
least in our districts,” she stated.
The panel was asked whether a vacancy
tax might be effective, but Jennifer
Falk, executive director of the
Union Square Partnership, said she was
against it.
“Anytime a beloved business in
Union Square closes, more often than
not, there’s a very distinct drama going
on behind the scenes, with the ownership
or with the business,” Falk said.
“There’s just so many issues going on.
I think an across-the-board tax for vacancy
would just hurt.”
Audience members expressed skepticism
over whether Brookfi eld, which
recently bought several buildings on
Bleecker St., would be a benefi cial retail
presence.
Maria Diaz, executive director of the
Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber
of Commerce, said that Brookfi eld had
told her of planning to bring in small
businesses, and staying away from
chains. When concerns were still expressed
about Brookfi eld, Diaz said, “I
can only give you what they have said.
They are not going to try to put in any
chain stores… . They’re curating art
into some of their spaces.”
Diaz said that Brookfi eld had been
reaching out to local groups, including
G.V.C.C.C. and the community board,
and had wanted to come to that evening’s
meeting.
Topics raised for the new committee’s
next meeting in September were
to invite Brookfi eld, along with local
big property owners, to hear about
their perspectives and experiences with
local retail.
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Broadway Initiative described having
a 20 percent vacancy, while there is
15 percent vacancy in the Noho BID,
and 10 percent in the Hudson Square
Connection BID, whose representative
noted that was sharply down from 30
percent in 2008. William Kelley of the
Village Alliance, which is centered on
Eighth St., Sixth Ave., Astor Place and
St. Mark’s Place, noted that vacancy in
their district was generally around 3 to
5 percent. However, he said, it was now
up to 7 percent, the highest since the
2008 crash, which saw 40 percent of
the district’s retail spaces empty.
BIDs are created when a strong majority
of local property owners vote to
form them; the property owners are
then assessed a special tax by the city,
which is then funneled back to the BID
for it to provide supplemental city services,
such as sanitation, security and
marketing for the area.
Questions from locals in the audience
centered around how all of the
empty storefronts could be fi lled.
“Every situation is unique,” responded
Mark Dicus, executive director of
the Soho Broadway Initiative. He described
longtime property owners, for
example, that simply weren’t getting
offers for their spaces because of limited
demand in the market. “They’re
not getting legitimate proposals at any
price,” he explained. “They’re getting
short-term but nothing long-term.”
More fl exible leases were discussed.
Corey Kunz of the Hudson Square
Connection BID noted a recent success,
the Color Factory, an upcoming
pop-up exhibit at Spring and Varick
Sts. The exhibit will have just a one- or
two-year lease while providing an experience
to customers that will draw
more foot traffi c to the area.
“I think that fl exibility is really important,”
noted Kunz.
Another fl exible-lease idea was offering
lower rents to start out, followed
by revenue sharing and gradually increasing
rents, to give new businesses
a chance to gain momentum. A member
of the Greenwich Village-Chelsea
Chamber of Commerce noted that
some businesses in Brooklyn were already
TheVillager.com August 2, 2018 23
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