(NEW YORK, NEW YORK)— After years of surging rents, New York city is seeing more and more empty storefronts even in popular shopping districts like the Fifth Avenue and Madison on Upper East Side and downtown in SoHo. With behemoths like Barney’s among the latest to fall after its rent suddenly doubled to $30 million, once-busy streets are seeing a blight of closed storefronts and empty space. Now, commercial landlords are striking bargains with retailers to attract them into these areas again, the New York Post reports.
While last year, real estate industry experts were buzzing about pop-upsas an alternative to traditionally long commercial leases, this year REBNY’s semiannual report shows that commercial landlords are using short-term rental deals to entice retailers into lingering for longer stays. Online brands are often attracted by the low commitment of pop-up shops, which allows them to test a successful online presence in a brick and mortar context. The New York Post’s rundown of the REBNY report shows that a healthy mix of short-term and long-term rentals (which often tend to yield higher revenue) both bolster long periods of empty storefronts, while luring successful brands into sustainable, longer-term rental deals.
