A city of empty stores looks isolated.
Our New York City is filled with empty storefronts.
Part of the problem is that unless they are specialty stores, they are not particularly viable in this day and age of online shopping.
The other problem is the structure of commercial real estate laws and regulations. We need to change property valuation methods so that landlords cannot inflate their estimated rent, enabling them to receive larger loans from the banks.
This is why you see so many landlords willing to let spaces sit vacant for years rather than lowering rents — it protects their ability to borrow and keeps the property’s book value high.
The fact of the matter is that stores, per se, will never truly come back.
It is up to us, all of us, to rethink the usage of store space.
Can it be related to the affordability of living in the city? On one end of the spectrum, you have all these spaces empty and on the other, the cost of living in the city has made it unaffordable for young people and most working people.
Maybe stores can be turned into affordable living spaces? Or creative spaces for artists?
Let us use our imagination to reincarnate these store spaces and thus to help revive our city.
Source: https://medium.com/@olliecross/why-nyc-storefronts-sit-empty-for-decades-and-its-more-than-a-greedy-landlords-d25749d36eeb