On one side of Victoria's Secret, there's an empty storefront where a men's clothing shop used to be. A Japanese restaurant, now shuttered, is on the other side. For Rent signs are more common than street lights. Despite a building boom across much of the city, Steinway St. - the normally bustling retail corridor in the heart of Astoria, Queens - has fallen on tough times.
Despite a long tradition as a powerhouse shopping district, Steinway St. is suffering a significant slowdown in retail leasing activity. Landlords, brokers and merchants blame the weak economy for store closings and curtailed expansion plans.
Faded strip plots comeback; Steinway St. stymied by empty storefronts
On the block retail experts consider the most desirable, between 31st Ave. and Broadway, eight storefronts are vacant or have For Rent signs. There are 13 between 30th and 31st Aves.
14 comments:
Lower the rent. I have been in the real estate business for thirty years It has been my observation that lowering your price works.
Michael P.Tirelli
Kaye Realty & Development Inc.
Bayside too!
About two blocks north
of Northern Blv'd.
on the east side of Bell Bl'vd
I spotted 4 VACANCIES IN A ROW
this past Saturday!
Further up were some recent turnovers and a building for sale!
Doesn't look good for Queens
older established nabes!
But heaven forbid these old rent gouging landlords would lower
their prices.
They will have to sooner than they thought or else sell off their properties instead of paying the fast rising commercial real estate taxes!
Greedy, lazy slobs that they are!
Wow! Plenty of room for some more 99 cent stores!
same on austin street in forest hills
anyone walked up 8th street off 6th ave in the village lately?
tumbleweeds are blowing
recession is here
save your pennies or buy a condo for 1200 a sq foot? what would you do at this point?
this will not be pretty
now so many will learn to live within their means
i have for years and i am fine
but many are in deep doo doo
oh how could i forget it is different here in nyc!
sure it is
There are several vacancies on Broadway between Steinway and 31st St. as well - a Greek cafe closed several months ago, and it's still empty, a large 99 cent store closed, and another 99 cent store halved itself, and the other half is now empty.
"Powerhouse shopping district" my ass. Maybe 50 years ago.
No parking, filthy garbage and dog shit strewn sidewalks. Street punks from the 50th St and Broadway projects, deranged homeless. I've been to shopping areas in fucking Eastern Europe with more cleanliness and class.
Well, at least it's vibrant and diverse!! Oh wait, maybe NOT so vibrant anymore....
Repeat after me class, "vibrant and diverse, vibrant and diverse, vibrant and......"
Repeat after me class, "vibrant and diverse, vibrant and diverse, vibrant and......"
When people are more penny wise and dollar foolish this is what you get. You have Kmart, Target, Walmart etc selling you stuff a few cents cheaper but you don't realize the car ride and the extra stuff you pick up that you don't need all adds up to you spending more. You should have gotten off your but and walked to your local store when you had a chance....because now we're all disappearing.
A mix of a few chain stores will bring enough clientele for better quality Steinway and hopefully some mom and pop stores. I am open to stores like Barnes and Noble, Ann Taylor, Eddie Bauer, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Charlotte Rose, Forever 21, etc. The presence of some of these will help traffic flow to smaller stores. The landlords will have to gie in eventually How much money can they afford to lose on the "potentiality" of getting a chain store. They will never make that money back!
Do you really expect
greedy landlords give in
and take less rent money?
And what apple cart did you just tumble off of ?
On Main Street in Flushing,
I believe it was the Mehran Realty Group that opted for having the Hong Kong Market as a tenant instead of the big national brand Burlington Coat Factory for want of the Chinese paying them a few dollars more!
What's good for an owner's pocket is far more important than what's good for the community!
If El Mundo Discount pays more than K-Mart the pig's gonna go for them!
We hear that the Mehrans are 2nd
(or 3rd) generation carpet baggers.
Is that true?
You know what the local talent suggests:
MORE DEVELOPMENT!
http://www.astorians.com/community/index.php?topic=12264.0
I tell you, that astorians.com is worth its weight in gold!
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