Broadway In Crisis: 57 Shops Stand Empty On Just 30 UWS Blocks

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The number of vacant storefronts on the Upper West Side was a major issue before coronavirus struck the city. It's even worse now.

With the coronavirus pandemic — and the business restrictions that accompanied it — the number of lifeless stores blighting the neighborhood has grown dramatically.

A count carried out by Patch in April 2019 found 47 stores standing empty on Broadway between West 68th and 98th Streets. A similar count this month found that there are now 57 shuttered businesses.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Patch's survey did not include businesses whose owners state they're intending to reopen after the pandemic.

Local politicians call the storefront vacancy problem on the Upper West Side an ongoing problem made even worse by the coronavirus.

"This increase in storefront vacancies is not good for the UWS nor the economic health of the City. COVID made what has been an ongoing problem even worse," Council Member Helen Rosenthal said.

"For over 40 years, UWS electeds have pushed for commercial rent control — which requires NYS action.

"While the City has very little regulatory power to support small businesses, I've sponsored and passed a number of bills for the city to do what it can: reducing the commercial rent tax, creating a public database to track vacant storefronts in addition to pending vacancies, and requiring the city to provide additional training and education to support businesses."

The creation of a public database to track storefront vacancies had been little more than a talking point for several years before Rosenthal, along with Speaker Corey Johnson and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, passed Local Law 157 in 2019.

The legislation creates a citywide database of empty storefront properties that will go live in February 2021.

Another idea gaining traction is the "Lower NYC Rent" proposal spearheaded by Lincoln Restler, a former aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is running for City Council in Brooklyn. The proposal would mandate that landlords lower the prices of properties if the sites remain unoccupied for more than three months.

The plan would see the rents on empty storefronts drop by 10 percent after three months and another 10 percent every following three months.

While the database will help collect data and identify specific landlords pushing businesses out of properties, it does not currently fix a vacancy problem that has grown by 21 percent on the Upper West Side over the past 18 months.

Of the 30 blocks on Broadway between West 68th and 98th Streets, there were four blocks that had three vacant storefronts each.

• Broadway and West 82nd Street (East Side of the Avenue)
• Broadway and West 69th Street (West Side of the Avenue)
• Broadway and West 77th Street (West Side of the Avenue)
• Broadway and 96th Street (West Side of the Avenue)

In a September 2020 survey by Brewer's office, interns from her staff found 66 storefront vacancies on Broadway from West 59th to 96th Streets — a slightly larger area that the one surveyed by Patch. The survey found 335 street level vacant storefronts throughout the entire length of Broadway, from Battery Park to Inwood.

"If this unfortunate trend continues, we stand to lose a lot of neighborhood character and what makes our borough special, particularly in our shopping districts from Chinatown all the way up to Little Dominican Republic," Brewer said in a news release that accompanied the survey. "New York City without a vibrant Broadway is unimaginable."

Vacant storefronts aren't the only feature that's impossible to miss walking down Broadway on the Upper West Side.

Signs with "Michael Madrid for US Congress NY-10" are taped to windows of the majority of vacant storefronts in the area.

Madrid, a Libertarian candidate, is challenging Rep. Jerry Nadler in the upcoming November election for his seat.

"We're campaigning against a well-entrenched incumbent on issues we feel are important — and which we hope will result in less empty storefronts in the future," Madrid told Patch about his reasoning for putting the signs up.

Nadler did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

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