You only have to walk down various streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn to see that store vacancy rates are high. But it seems that in Brooklyn's vacancy rates are the highest in the city. I'm bracing to see shuttered stores on Fifth and Seventh Avenue in coming months. I just hope that various local businesses can manage to ride out this recession. Here from Crain's New York.
The recession is taking a heavy toll in shopping districts across
the city with Brooklyn hardest hit to date, according to a new study
revealing vacancy rates in retailing strips in the boroughs outside of
Manhattan.
As of this month, the vacancy rate in Brooklyn stood
at 14.1% among locally-owned stores, well above the city average of
12.1%, according to the study conducted by Rep. Anthony Weiner’s
office. In Queens, where retail corridors in neighborhoods such as
Astoria and Forest Hills still draw good crowds, 12.2% of shop fronts
are vacant. Staten Island and the Bronx are fairing slightly better,
with vacancy rates of 9.7% and 9.1%, respectively.
Ask the businesses that moved out why their stores were shuttered: they got pushed out because their landlords raised the rent. I have no doubt that some of these small businesses shut down due to either typical “most small businesses fail” reasons or because of the economy, but I know many 5th Avenue business owners who face really tough rent hikes.
Perhaps there’s an incentive for building owners to have an empty storefront than to have a tenant who pays a lower rent… I don’t know.