New Springville wins retail title with 188 chain stores
Swimming in chains in Staten Island
From the June issue: New Yorkers in a shopping mood may think of Staten Island as a blip on the road to the tax-free bargains in New Jersey’s malls, but they’re overlooking the borough’s status as the city’s chain-store champ.
The New Springville neighborhood in zip code 10314 in Staten Island won this title with an eye-popping 188 chain stores in 2009. That’s 17 percent more than the nearest competitor, the 10001 zip code in Midtown, according to a retail report by the Center for an Urban Future.
Chain stores are clustering in the 10314 zip code because it’s an enormous territory that’s home to the 1.274 million-square-foot Staten Island Mall at 2655 Richmond Avenue. The mall itself lists 189 stores — most of which are chains — on its roster.
The list includes working woman’s clothier Ann Taylor, trendy teen label American Eagle Outfitters, and department store stalwarts JCPenney and Sears. The mall stores form the epicenter of a retail network that includes plenty of smaller strip centers in the 10314 zip code. All are seeking to ring up sales from Staten Island’s half a million residents, who boast an average annual household income of $80,970. [more]
