Real Estate’s Real Problem
Blame high rent & online shops, not Blas, for empty storefronts
WHEN Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Albanese faces Bill de Blasio in a debate likely to be held before the Sept. 12 primary, let’s hope he’s better prepared than he was at a press conference this week.
The former five-term City Council member blamed Mayor de Blasio for the city’s plague of empty storefronts — a crisis that’s been widely reported for years, but which Albanese seemed only to become aware of now.
It’s unfortunate, because Albanese has articulated many strong arguments against the mayor — including his gross mismanagement of the schools, public housing and the homeless situation, as well as his indebtedness to unions and the rampant City Hall corruption.
While Albanese is a long shot to topple de Blasio, remember: No- body gave the former public advocate a chance at this point in the 2013 primary race, either. Even if Albanese loses, a strong showing by him might serve as a warning to de Blasio in a second term not to take his Democratic supporters for granted.
But blaming de Blasio for too many vacant stores is just silly. It’s like blaming him for the predicted closing of up to 30 percent of shopping malls coast to coast in the next five years.
Albanese cited a “small-business crisis on our hands” and said that “small-business evictions have skyrocketed under [de Blasio’s] watch.” He also lashed out at the mayor’s supposedly cozy relationships with real-estate interests. (He previously said that de Blasio is “owned lock, stock and barrel by Big Real Estate.”)
But most retail vacancies exist in buildings owned by small real estate — low-rise addresses typically owned by family partnerships.
In fact, what retail real-estate brokers call a “malaise” is due to several oft-cited conditions. The “perfect storm” includes the mortal toll that online shopping has taken on brick-and-mortar retail; the over-creation of expensive new storefronts in new and redesigned buildings, especially in Manhattan, precisely when there’s less demand for it; and landlords who are fooled into believing that rents should be higher than the market can bear.
Yet, Albanese sounded like a high-school student-council candi- date when he cited a “survey” of city blocks by two campaign volunteers. Holy cow! Nine empty stores on one block of West 72nd Street!
Much more widespread vacancies have been reported in greater detail by the Real Estate Board of New York lobbying organization as well as by brokers and analysts for the past two years — from the Up- per West Side to the tip of the Battery, and even on Fifth Avenue.
Albanese, who’s mounted futile mayoral campaigns in the past, still has much to contribute to the debate over the direction the city’s going in under de Blasio. But without a firmer handle on why stores are empty, he’s only shopping for trouble.