NYC Scolds SoHo Shops That 'Should Not Be There At All'

SOHO, NY — New York City is starting to penalize large retailers in SoHo, which have been improperly operating in the neighborhood's shopping corridor for years, according to complaints from local residents and officials.

Retailers in SoHo must be smaller than 10,000 square feet, or else they have to acquire a special permit to open their doors. Large clothing stores along the Broadway shopping corridor have long stayed open despite being too large for zoning regulations, according to local officials like Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president. Brewer and other local reps have repeatedly called for the city's Department of Buildings to enforce said regulations.

Last month, the city issued violations to Topshop, Zara and American Eagle for operating a retail store that exceeds 10,000 square feet. And in March, the city issued similar violations to Uniqlo and Hollister for the same reason. According to the New York Post, which was first to report news of the violations, few stores acquire the special permit needed to operated an oversized store in the area.

All five violations issued by the city have been marked as "resolved."

These violations were tepidly applauded by Brewer, who wrote on Facebook that SoHo stores the size of Zara and Topshop "should not be there at all."

Longtime neighborhood residents have repeatedly complained about the arrival of new big-box retailers, such as the massive Niketown that opened its 55,000 square foot store at 529 Broadway in 2016. Local representatives have faulted the city's Department of Buildings for allowing such large stores to operate without the proper permits.

Tobi Bergman, a former chairman of Community Board 2, told the New York Post in December that he faulted the department for its lax perspective on the code violations.

"The Buildings Department is not doing its job and they’re reinventing what the law says," he said at the time

In addition to these violations, the city is conducing an ongoing audit into several commercial properties in the SoHo area to see if they're complying with size regulations, a source told Patch.

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Lead image via Google Maps.