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Serious Retail Rental Disaster in New York! Coming to Sinkieland ...

Pinkieslut

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Map shows New York City's vacant storefronts

Leanna Garfield Apr 24, 2017, 12:22 PM ET
Finance
Here are the hundreds of storefronts that are sitting empty in New York City

vacant store new york cityGetty Images
Empty store fronts stand in a trendy West Village neighborhood on April 11, 2017 in New York City.
If you walk through Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, you'll likely find upscale coffee shops or clothing stores. But on almost every block, you'll also see abandoned storefronts sporting "For Lease" signs.

A new site called Vacant New York highlights the city's vacancy problem in detail. Launched in 2016 by freelance software developer Justin Levinson, the site features an interactive map that shows almost every unoccupied storefront in Manhattan. Vacant spaces are highlighted in red, and users can zoom in to find out their addresses.

The goal of Levinson's project is to provide quantitative data on Manhattan's storefront vacancies, which wasn't previously available in one place, he says

"The project began with a mix of frustration and curiosity. Almost every single store, venue, grungy dive bar, and cheap restaurant I visited as a starry-eyed punk rock teenager and questing 20-something was gone. My neighborhood began to look decrepit," Levinson writes.

Here's what SoHo looks like:

Vacant New York/Justin Levinson
A screenshot of SoHo from the Vacant New York map.
To compile the data, Levinson scoured brokers' sites and went on long walks. He also invites users to email him to add or correct the map to keep it up-to-date. In total, he has documented about 1,000 vacant retail spaces, some of which have been empty for years.

Here's the area around Times Square and midtown:

Vacant New York
A screenshot of Midtown from the Vacant New York map.
While Levinson acknowledges there is no single cause of NYC's higher-than-normal rate of vacancies, he points to long commercial leases and sky-high rent prices as the two main reasons the situation has arisen.

That view shared by some journalists and real estate experts as well, since both of those factors can make it hard for independent shops to stay afloat. For example, small restaurant leases average 10 years with fixed annual percentage increases, while those for large food chains are usually longer. Since many landlords want to maximize their earning potential, they sometimes hold out for a big chain (that would likely have a better credit score and survive longer than a new, independent shop) - even if that means keeping the space vacant for years, according to reports by The New York Times and Bloomberg. Many older mom-and-pop businesses are also not able to afford rising rents, especially in expensive, gentrifying neighborhoods.

Vacant New York
A screenshot of the Financial District from the Vacant New York map.
"As much as I bemoan national chains and the homogenization of the city, you can argue to me that the nationals are beneficial: they can weather economic downturns, they create jobs, they provide cheap goods and services to people who can't afford much. I'll probably still think you're wrong, but I'll listen to the arguments. Vacant storefronts provide value to nobody," Levinson says.

Vacant New York/Justin Levinson
Vacant storefronts in SoHo in Manhattan, New York City.
He adds that he hopes community groups and policymakers will use the map to advocate for changes, like creating financial incentives for landlords who extend leases to small shops or giving legacy businesses landmark status.

If New York doesn't deal with its vacancy problem soon, Levinson says, it could get even more out of control.

It's no longer just a tenant versus landlord issue - it affects the landscape of the city as a whole," he says.
 

gingerlyn

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No worry
In sinkie land, empty malls can be converted to JollyBee chicken or better still, they can be converted to tuition centers and exercise places for China PRC aunties to do tai chi and line dance!!!!!
 

virus

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Loyal
alrdy happening, IMM machiam so quiet, unusually quiet on lunch hour, no crowd, some of the stalls at L1 gone, lotsa weary eyes sticking out for passerby, mebbe can send another sick indian laydee go hitting cheena salesgirls
 

frenchbriefs

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Agree with the homogenization and the national chains,in the past malls used to have tons of variety and small business owners,u had things like pool halls and lan shops,weird shops owned by weirdos.even Suntec had more variety in the past.now every mall is just a carbon copy of each other.
 

Pinkieslut

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Loyal
Agree with the homogenization and the national chains,in the past malls used to have tons of variety and small business owners,u had things like pool halls and lan shops,weird shops owned by weirdos.even Suntec had more variety in the past.now every mall is just a carbon copy of each other.

It is not sustainable. You can read in the article that the landlords in NYC (a prime city right behind San Francisco) refused to hold the rents despite poor retail economy. They probably want to double the rents at the end of the 10 years lease for these shops.

It is a similar phenomenon in HK, with many the shops in Central and Causeway Bay empty. The landlords do not pay bank loans anymore and can afford to hold it until the highest bidder come.

I believe Singapore will be in a worse situation as its local spending power and tourist trade are very far behind NYC and Hong Kong.
 

frenchbriefs

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Asset
It is not sustainable. You can read in the article that the landlords in NYC (a prime city right behind San Francisco) refused to hold the rents despite poor retail economy. They probably want to double the rents at the end of the 10 years lease for these shops.

It is a similar phenomenon in HK, with many the shops in Central and Causeway Bay empty. The landlords do not pay bank loans anymore and can afford to hold it until the highest bidder come.

I believe Singapore will be in a worse situation as its local spending power and tourist trade are very far behind NYC and Hong Kong.

No choice,the big conglomerates will always eat the small fish, entrepreneurs and small business owners are not able to survive long enough to compete.unless sinkies stop supporting the conglomerates like diary farm which owns all the supermarkets like cold storage and giant and all the major FNB chains like bread talk,yoshinoya,monster curry,ding tai feng etc etc,these companies will continue to dominate and malls can always rely on these companies.
 

kryonlight

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Asset
unless sinkies stop supporting the conglomerates like diary farm which owns all the supermarkets like cold storage and giant and all the major FNB chains like bread talk,yoshinoya,monster curry,ding tai feng etc etc,these companies will continue to dominate and malls can always rely on these companies.

It's inevitable. Rents will go up and the cost of the food will go up. Eventually, sinkies will be forced to eat less at these F&B chains due to depreciating purchasing power and start cooking porridge and maggi mee at home. Plus all these F&B chains are the same in every mall. People will start to get sick of the food after a few tries.
 

JohnTan

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Generous Asset
It's inevitable. Rents will go up and the cost of the food will go up. Eventually, sinkies will be forced to eat less at these F&B chains due to depreciating purchasing power and start cooking porridge and maggi mee at home. Plus all these F&B chains are the same in every mall. People will start to get sick of the food after a few tries.

Lots of sinkies enjoy eating maggi mee and pauper's food. You can find repackaged pauper's cuisine in Xin Wang restaurants and korean eateries that serve korean 'army stew' dishes. Morons will gladly overpay to eat pauper's cuisine of instant noodles and luncheon meat at these places.
 

Kuailan

Alfrescian
Loyal
It is not sustainable. You can read in the article that the landlords in NYC (a prime city right behind San Francisco) refused to hold the rents despite poor retail economy. They probably want to double the rents at the end of the 10 years lease for these shops.

It is a similar phenomenon in HK, with many the shops in Central and Causeway Bay empty. The landlords do not pay bank loans anymore and can afford to hold it until the highest bidder come.

I believe Singapore will be in a worse situation as its local spending power and tourist trade are very far behind NYC and Hong Kong.

Rivervale mall.jpg

Look at Rivervale mall second floor empty since last August when new owner bought over from Capitaland.. ground floor facing main at 3 outlets still empty business is so bad no new tenant is taking over the outlet it's been more than 5 months ..there are now at least 3 bakery shops competing at the same prices!!
Bread talk..Swee Heng..Bakery Cuisine..plus one m&d pizza selling $4.50 a piece lots of old folks around this area how they afford this price,, Pizza will closed shop soon...ah neh curry rice already packed and go back India!

Sadly PAP mentioned during election rally they will built one hawker centre soon in Sengkang or Punggol talk is cheap till today No picture No sound and No action..thou peasants have forgotten!!

Bloody NTUC food Cock kopi O and Tea O charging $1.00 fcuking hell !! Changi Village, Toa Payoh and Marsiling still can get Kopi O and Tea O for .70cts!!

Pay and Pay please wake up !! To get to your GDP target ruling party has to increase car park, 30% water..and countless unseen increase!! food cock increase their price too peasants are at the mercy of Pay and Pay!!!
 

JohnTan

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Generous Asset
Don't doubt the deep pockets of us towkays. Even in such a market, I've not dropped my rental rates and there is still demand for my property.
 

kryonlight

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Asset
Don't doubt the deep pockets of us towkays. Even in such a market, I've not dropped my rental rates and there is still demand for my property.

So when are you going to double your rental rate? Faster go up lah! 10 million population here very soon.
 
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