While everyone has been noting the vacancy report put out earlier this week by the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District, the number of prolonged vacancies appear to be broader than that cited between 67th and 82nd Street on Columbus Avenue.
Some are obvious to Upper West Siders: The former Rite Aid on the southwest corner of 96th and Broadway has been vacant for four years. The Metro Theater at 100th and Broadway has been vacant for a decade (although that’s reportedly changing).
The increase in rents over the last few years to over $400 of late, has been driving development of larger retail spaces. Columbus Square was one of the largest developments, adding over 300,000 square feet of retail space. While the recent additions of Chipotle and Bare Burger have now filled all but one of the spaces along Columbus Avenue between 97th and 100th Streets, the satellite Columbus Square development along Amsterdam between 98th and 100th Streets remains vacant (an Associated Supermarket filled the void for two years but the space has been vacant now for three years).
Seeing those eye-popping rents, residential building have been converting their street-level real estate into larger retail units. At 175 West 95th Street, the co-op building was converted to condos by Starrett Development including a redesign that moved the entrance from Amsterdam to West 95th, providing more retail space. To date, no new retail space has been rented (holdovers HSBC Bank and Symphony Vet have been holding on through construction). Small storefronts for a liquor store, cleaners and administrative offices for Mandell school were displaced during the conversion.
Starrett Development lead a similar conversion at 100 West 93rd Street: where there had been no retail space, they built created 23,000 square feet of retail space. While they landed Party City as a tenant (with most of their retail space below ground) since early 2015, there has been no main floor tenant signed to date.
Across the street, 70 West 93rd Street submitted a proposal to extend it’s limited retail space (a dry cleaner currently) to build 14,730 square feet of retail space during a September Community Board 7 Meeting. While the Community Board disapproved the changes, it shows the continual drive to bring large retail space that the Upper West Side isn’t showing any signs of being able to absorb.
In that same intersection of 93rd and Columbus, the former location of Columbus Distributors Hardware on the northeast corner lies vacant. The former proprietor saw his rent jump from $7,000 a month to $12,000 in 2007 and left for the Bronx when his lease came up in 2012. With rents continuing to exceed what it takes for small local businesses to turn a profit, it’s likely to stay vacant for some time.