Housing and Empty Store Fronts
The number of empty storefronts on Broadway, below 14th Street, is not good. Those streets, although busy, start to feel sketchy when the sun goes down. Stores generally light up the streets, but many are vacant and dark. There is also the housing issue, as the price of an apartment doesn’t align with entry-level salaries, unlike when we came to NYC. We might have been making a lot less, but the rent coincided with how much we were bringing home; now, not so much.
There is no lack of innovation in NYC, which means that the empty storefronts directly result in rents that are too high to run a profitable business. Gotham rents our stores, and one of them is egregious for the amount of money we are making in the store. Landlords should make money, but these are long games, as they own assets. Unfortunately, too many have taken out mortgages that don’t allow them to rent at the market rate. Instead, they keep the prices high to appease the banks, and then take a loss and depreciate the property on their tax returns. Something has to change; there needs to be a shake-up, and what would that look like?
In the long term, large property owners should have the wherewithal to listen to the market if they do not have significant debt. Most importantly, a law should be passed that requires landlords to fill vacant storefronts within a specified timeframe, such as six months. That may be too aggressive, but not in this town. This applies to both apartment rentals and commercial properties at the street level. Additionally, if you are building at street level or constructing an apartment building, you have a specific timeframe to complete the property once the permit is issued. There are countless vacant properties that people have begun to build, but have either run out of cash or stalled because they have other priorities. However, we should not all have to endure those empty construction sites on our streets. Shoring up buildings every five years should be reconsidered and replaced with the use of drone footage instead. There are buildings uptown that have been shored up for decades. That is not okay for the neighborhood.
When it comes to apartments, the key is building more apartments and renegotiating the mortgages for the landlords here as well. Many builders receive a tax break for setting aside 30% of the apartments for middle-income housing. That is a good thing, but any building, whether it is built on the most prestigious spot in town, should be required to use this tax break. That is good for the community, and it is good for housing.
How does this happen? Of course, it all starts with the banks, and laws that compel developers to do the right thing, and only laws will do that. Perhaps JPMorgan/Chase will be willing to cut a deal to renegotiate every loan when the government figures out why they let Trump wire 4900 transfer to Epstein, a known criminal, but I doubt it.
When Koch was in power, he sold off New York City-owned real estate to developers to help revive the city quickly. It worked, but the result is that we now lack sufficient housing. Zohran cares about housing. He needs to delve deeply into NYCHA and the behavior of real estate titans before implementing changes and collaborating with Hochul to make significant adjustments to the laws. It is time, and that will keep this city filled with a diverse young population.
NYC without artists, actors, teachers, trainers, chefs, dog walkers, store workers, firemen, and police officers is not a city that works.