Despite Tens of Millions of Visitors to Lower Manhattan, Local Retail Remains Sluggish
The April 13 meeting of the Land Use and Economic Development Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) reviewed a downbeat report from the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce about the state of retail storefronts in Lower Manhattan.
Maggie Paruta, an economic development specialist with the Chamber of Commerce said that within the confines of CB1 (roughly Manhattan south of a line traced by Canal, Pearl, and Baxter Streets, and the Brooklyn Bridge), “the vacancy rate is 22.11 percent, which is the number one highest vacancy rate compared to all of the community districts in Manhattan.”
She added, “before Covid, it was at 17 percent, and then climbed to around 22 percent, and has pretty much stayed there since. So there hasn’t really been a significant recovery in vacancy rate.”
Within the footprint of the Downtown Alliance (the business improvement district between City Hall and the Battery, from the East River to West Street), she noted that the retail vacancy rate is 25.45 percent.
In contrast, the Chamber of Commerce documented that Lower Manhattan benefits from the fourth-highest tally of non-resident foot traffic (defined as visits by people who neither live or work within the district) of any Community Board in Manhattan. Between November 2024 and April 2025, there were 56.2 million such visits logged, using anonymized mobile phone data.
One Lower Manhattan small business owner, Patrick Hall (co-owner with his wife Christine Hall of Elan Flowers, on Worth Street) serves on the board of the Chamber of Commerce and leads its Small Business Coalition. He said, “small storefront businesses are not just economic units, they are neighborhood infrastructure. We create street life, provide local jobs, and help define the character and safety of our communities. But the systems we operate within are often fragmented, time consuming, and difficult to navigate, especially for small operators without dedicated compliance staff.”
Among the challenges he cited were, “the complexity of permits, inspections and compliance,” “unpredictable enforcement and fines,” and “lack of coordination across agencies forces small business owners to spend time navigating systems instead of running their businesses.”
CB1 chair Tammy Meltzer theorized that stubbornly high rates of local retail vacancy might be driven in part by “the number of office buildings being converted to residences. They empty the building to be able to convert it, as with Dick’s Hardware getting booted out of their store.” (This was a reference to a longtime neighborhood fixture, located at 70 Gold Street, that is being pressured to close by the building’s new owner.)
CB1 member Laura Starr asked, “if you have suggestions for improving the overall urban environment, that would help these businesses. Because in the Financial District, the streets aren’t that pleasant to walk down. Would more innovative, forward-looking interventions, especially when converting to residential, make it feel like more of a residential neighborhood?”
“It might be interesting to reach out to the urban planning schools locally and see if any of them might have the appetite to take on a study,” suggested CB1 member Rosa Chang. “I live in FiDi and I agree a hundred percent that the streets are not welcoming.”
In an effort to jumpstart retail vitality in Lower Manhattan, the Downtown Alliance launched a RE:Store initiative in January, which offers storefront operators south of City Hall three months of free rent in local retail space, along with a $15,000 grant, and business advice from the Alliance. The winners of this competitive program, who will open pop-up stores in June, are expected to be announced soon.
Separately, the Battery Park City Authority is studying the state of retail and dining in the neighborhood it manages, and is asking for feedback via a survey that will help the agency “develop strategies to address retail vacancies, strengthen retail diversity, and meet community needs.” The short survey can be found at https://bpca.ny.gov/bpc-people/you-tell-us-battery-park-city-retail-experience-survey/, and closes May 15.
The Chamber of Commerce metrics echoed those of a report published at the end of last year by the City’s Department of Small Business Services (SBS), which found that CB1 has the highest retail vacancy rate of any district in the five boroughs. Among 2,243 storefronts located within CB1, 23.81 percent (or 535 locations) were unoccupied. This represented a slight improvement from the 2024 vacancy rate of 24.12 percent, which was also the highest anywhere in New York City. SBS says that the average storefront within CB1 employs 10.86 staff and pays $45,933 in annual sales taxes. These metrics suggest that vacant retail spaces in Lower Manhattan represent more than 6,000 lost jobs and $25.5 million in annual tax revenue forgone.
In Tribeca, Elan Flowers is located beyond the boundaries of Downtown Alliance and BPCA retail strategies. The Halls are on their own. “Running a storefront business in Lower Manhattan is both a privilege and a constant challenge,” Mr. Hall said. “We manage high fixed costs, complex regulations, inspections, and ongoing economic uncertainty, all while trying to serve our customers, support our employees, and contribute to the life of the neighborhood.”