Is American Retail at a Historic Tipping Point?
By MICHAEL CORKERY
APRIL 15, 2017
Along the cobblestone streets of SoHo, Chanel handbags and Arc’teryx jackets are displayed in shops like museum pieces, harking back to the height of the neighborhood’s trendiness. But rents there are softening, and the number of vacant storefronts is rising.
Today, some of the most sought-after real estate by retailers is not in SoHo, but five miles away in Red Hook, a gritty Brooklyn enclave with a shipbuilding past. E-commerce merchants are vying to lease part of a huge warehouse space, spanning 11 acres, that would allow them to deliver goods the same day they’re ordered online.
The profound reordering of New York’s shopping scene reflects a broad restructuring in the American retail industry.
E-commerce players, led by the industry giant Amazon, have made it so easy and fast for people to shop online that traditional retailers, shackled by fading real estate and a culture of selling in stores, are struggling to compete. This shift has been building gradually for years. But economists, retail workers and real estate investors say it appears that it has sped up in recent months.
And our absolutely clueless Village Council wants to build more retail space in the new parking garage. Go figure.
Yes, let’s build some stores that won’t be occupied under a garage that won’t be utilized and we can all pay the debt into the next century. NO GARAGE. NO MORE STORES.
The garage (and 1st floor retail space) are all a scam.
Everyone knows we do not need additional parking (or retail space), so ONCE IT FAILS, those pushing it will be able to JUSTIFY building additional housing, etc. and accomplish their ultimate financial goals (and possibly social engineering goals)
The garage is being built to satisfy the demands of the failed developers and their restaurants. It has no real purpose other than a last ditch effort to try and float a couple of the restaurants in our over built downtown.
Its most significant intended purpose, and the one motivating past council members, is to compensate legally for building LESS parking at nearby apartment developments. Otherwise why would Aronsohn & Co. have cared so much that they made a video about it (on village tax money)? DO NOT BE FOOLED. Garage is a boondoggle to end them all. We have enough to worry about re: property tax increases without adding this unnecessary, voted-down, impossible-to-maintain monstrosity (at any size). ADD retail space? No, please. Let’s just reconfigure the Hudson St. lot.
Survey says STANDBY FOR THE SHAFT TAXPAYERS. IDEA LETS NOT FALL FOR GARAGE BOONDOGGLE OF ANY SIZE
PAVE LINE THE SURFACE LOTS CASE CLOSED
HEY THE 70’S CALLED… THEY WANT THEIR “QUAINT” VILLAGE BACK…
“Social engineering goals”…that’s too funny. So you think that messers Saranceno, Sullivan and Paulie walnuts are smart enough to social engineer Ridgewood? Here’s a better question… Why the f&$@ would you bother? Please.
9:46pm – keep your head in the sand… it suits you.