Vacancy Blight Sees Many UWS Storefronts Stand Empty For Years

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A swath of Broadway blighted by dozens of empty storefronts has worsened in the past two years – with many of the shops that were vacant in 2017 still not having occupants.

A count carried out by Borough President Gale Brewer's office in May 2017 found 30 stores standing empty between West 68th and 98th streets. Patch found 20 of those shops are still shuttered — and counted an additional 27 businesses that have gone under.

The vacancies are a crisis for the vitality and character of the neighborhood, locals said.

“We need to act now to protect the storefronts which make our neighborhoods vibrant and healthy,” Brewer testified recently before the City Council in favor of a Small Business Job Survival Act.

The legislation, introduced by City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, would require the Department of Small Business Services to maintain a public database of all storefront locations that have remained vacant for at least three months.

There is currently no citywide database that tracks commercial vacancies, which means most data comes from real estate sources and informal counts by concerned locals.

Brewer’s 2017 survey found a total of 188 empty storefronts along all of Broadway’s 244 blocks, from the Battery to Inwood, including the 30 identified on Broadway between 68th and 98th. In a separate survey conducted in November 2017, Rosenthal’s office found 57 of 422 storefronts on Broadway from 62nd Street to 109th Street—14%--were vacant.

“For generations, these businesses have been key to the ability to start a new life and eventually enter the middle class,” Rosenthal told Patch. “And as we very much see on the Upper West Side, they provide critical neighborhood services. But all of this is under threat."

“The crisis of empty storefronts continues to deepen,” said Brewer. "My office has been working on many initiatives to help solve this problem—from forming a Small Business Task Force to introducing the Vacant Storefront Database Bill—and we will continue to do so until New York has less empty storefronts.”

Shuttered businesses are not just bad news for owners and their customers. The construction that follows as storefronts change hands can also be a huge headache for neighboring storeowners, especially when scaffolding is involved.

“The scaffolding has been a big problem for us," said Victoria Singer, an employee of Bra Smyth on 78th and Broadway which has a neighboring building that's being renovated.

"It’s taken away our visibility. Customers can’t see us, we get calls about where we are."

Brewer argued that a database would help combat the rise in vacancies by giving business owners and policy makers a resource for spotting patterns.

“The database will identify vacancy trends throughout the city, spot areas where vacancies are rapidly increasing and identify specific property owners and managers who demonstrate a pattern of forcing out small business.”

The closure of local business is by no means an issue afflicting only the Upper West Side. According to a 2017 study by New York State Senator Brad Hoylman, there was an 18.4% vacancy rate along Bleecker Street from Sixth to Eighth Avenue.

Patch spotlighted 20 beloved businesses from all across NYC that had to close up shop in 2018, ranging from the fabled Cornelia Street Cafe in the West Village, to the Red Cat in Chelsea, to Carrot Top Pastries, 40-year-old institution in Inwood.

Check out more of the photos of the vacant UWS storefronts below: