Creative professionals set up storefront offices

Lower East Side retail storefronts are increasingly being used as office spaces, DNAinfo reported. “Creative” industries, such as architecture and design firms, are enjoying the street-level energy of storefronts, which also offer convenient signage and tend to be less expensive than traditional office space. Plus, there are plenty of vacant and available storefronts in the area, according to DNAinfo.

“Originally I wasn’t looking for a storefront,” Jennifer Carpenter, an architect whose firm operates from a storefront at 58 Hester Street, told DNAinfo. “But when we looked at this space I realized there were a lot of advantages to having a street presence.”

Of the 456 storefronts on the Lower East Side 42 were vacant or under construction in 2011, according to a report from the local Business Improvement District.

“I wanted a less expensive space and, for lack of a better word, I wanted something cooler,” Gordon Kipper, another architect, told DNAinfo. “Meeting people, talking to people all day,… it allows us to be engaged.” [DNAinfo]