The MTA takes in approximately $70 million a year in rent from stores that take out space in subterranean complexes, but most of these shops are nothing more than an after-thought. Some are designed to entice tourists searching for novelties, and others offer up little bit more than drab clothing, obscure CDs or lukewarm sodas. Few, if any, would be considered high end, and the MTA could be sitting on some untapped real estate resources.
Now, faced with the need to generate more revenue, the MTA is looking to attract what Heather Haddon called high-end retail stores to take out space in the subway. One — called Grast — opened recently at 42nd St. and 8th, and the authority’s real estate folks are looking for more. “It’s a new approach,” agency spokesman Kevin Ortiz said. “We’re looking to attract a new wave of edgy and stylish vendors that put some thought into their store’s design.”
Just imagine that: the subway system as a shopping destination.
6 comments
I always thought this was a place where the US falls flat in mass transit revenue. Asia has whole malls underground centered around the subway stops. I mean if anything the really popular stops such as Times Square should have more of a focus on retail. I bet even carving out new space would pay itself back and then some in rent due to the amount of foot traffic one could get. How about something like a Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts? The problem is lots of the spaces in New York are too small for anything useful other than like a newstand. They need to make the spaces bigger to attract more rent and higher paying tenants.
Could you imagine if the MTA had figgured this out just a few years ago? Retail rents in many Manhattan neighborhoods went through the roof& the MTA Never took advantage of the oppertunity to expand retail options & collect substantial rents.
OK it may not have been Madison Avenue, but there was a lot of uncollected money left at the farebox.
In very constrained passenger spaces, for example People’s Square, the practice is to remove the retail. Widening underground passageways is apparently more expensive than than losing the retail rents, even in places with relatively low construction costs.
A better approach would be to build malls on top of train stations, instead of below. There’s little hope for the subway, but fortunately most stations are in areas with enough above-ground retail. But on commuter rail, it should be standard practice to have a lot of retail and office construction at or near the stations, to generate both rents and traffic.
They first need to to provide ‘high end’ style stations to attract high end tenants. For example, these stations may need air conditioning. They definitely need functioning, well maintained and clean escalators and elevators that aren’t gross to the touch and don’t reek of filth and cheap cleaning agents that don’t work. Perhaps they would give a break to high-end retailers in exchange for the requisite station renovations and maintenance.
Yeah, follow the BID model (“business improvement district”). Charge retailers a fee (or just take it out of their rents) which gets pooled together to pay for extra station maintenance.
If that’s their plan, the MTA should consider re-opening the closed IND mezzanine between 35th and 40th Streets on Sixth Ave. The tunnel’s already there to connect Herald Square with the Bryant Park/NYPL area, and being as wide as the tracks below would have plenty of space for stores while leaving a center corridor for presdrians; the area above the tunnel is far more active during non-business hours (nights and weekend) than in the past, and the presence of businesses (along with close circuit camera and more policing) would make the sexual assault incident that led to the tunnel’s closing 20 years ago far less likely to happen again.