Vacancy Crisis: Empty Storefronts Cover Hell's Kitchen

HELL’S KITCHEN, NY — For years, Hell’s Kitcheners have observed growing numbers of vacant storefronts in the neighborhood. Then the pandemic hit.

The coronavirus threatens to unleash a retail apocalypse on New York City, having already shuttered scores of beloved neighborhood eateries and other businesses facing unfulfillable rent payments and a lack of aid from the federal government.

Before the crisis, vacancies were already mounting — a trend that does not bode well for the city’s civic and financial health, according to State Sen. Brad Hoylman.

“We can’t let our storefronts and restaurants be swallowed whole by the Amazons and Wal-Marts of the world,” he told Patch. “If we do we lose out on good jobs, high quality products, and the anchors that make our neighborhoods such sought after places to live.”

To survey the scope of the crisis in Hell’s Kitchen, Patch walked along Ninth Avenue between 59th and 34th streets this week, tallying each vacant storefront.

All told, 57 stores sat empty along that stretch — not counting active construction sites or businesses that shut down during the pandemic but have pledged to reopen at a later date. That’s a rate of more than two vacancies per block.

The grim list includes trendy neighborhood eateries like Taladwat, a Thai restaurant that closed in August, as well as lesser-known businesses like Ellen’s Nails, a salon near 58th Street, or NYNY Cleaners on the same block, which shut down over the summer.

“Thank you so much for your time spent with us,” reads a handwritten note taped inside the cleaners’ window.

Some stretches have been harder-hit than others. Between 49th and 51st streets, Ninth Avenue has a whopping 11 empty storefronts while the blocks between 44th and 45th streets have no vacancies at all.

No longer an oasis

For a time, the neighborhood had been a relative oasis for small businesses. A 2018 report by the Real Estate Board of New York found that retail vacancies in Hell’s Kitchen were half that of the West Village. While rents were about the same, Hell’s Kitchen’s greater population may have helped stores stay afloat, the report found.

Now, though, Hoylman describes vacancies as “an enormous issue,” and “one that is only accelerating during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Last year, a bill to create a citywide database of empty storefronts passed after being backed more than a dozen City Councilmembers, including Speaker Corey Johnson, who represents Hell’s Kitchen. The database is set to go live in February 2021.

In a statement, Hoylman, who represents Midtown and Hell’s Kitchen as well as Greenwich Village and Chelsea, said he’s sponsored legislation that would help ease the burden on local retailers, including a rent relief measure and a commercial vacancy tax, which would target landlords who leave storefronts empty while holding out for large, wealthy tenants.

Some action may need to come from outside the city. Lincoln Restler, a former mayoral aide now running for City Council in Brooklyn, made headlines this month with his "Lower NYC Rent" proposal, which would require landlords to lower the prices of properties if the sites remain unoccupied for more than three months. It would require state legislation to be enacted, however.

Other proposals include include a “mom-and-pop” rezoning, which limits the size of new storefronts in an effort to protect small shops.

Gale Brewer pushed through such a rezoning on the Upper West Side in 2012, while serving on the City Council. Ben Kallos, a councilmember who is running to succeed Brewer as Manhattan Borough President in 2021, has said he wants to expand it borough-wide.

Hoylman, who is likewise running for Borough President next year, said some sort of political action was necessary to reverse the vacancy trend.

“The challenges confronting Manhattan’s small businesses are great, but we can overcome them if we use every lever of government — and we must,” he said.

This is part of a series by Patch about retail vacancies in New York City. Read our coverage of the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, and stay tuned for a citywide story next week.