Save Fashion at the Port Authority

An empty ground-floor space in the Port Authority Bus Terminal has been
transformed into a pop-up shop filled with young designers’ clothes at
discount prices. For the past five years the space, which on Eighth Avenue between 41st
and 42nd streets, has been unoccupied. Vornado Realty Trust is planning
to build an office tower on top of the retail space, although there is
no time line for the project yet. “It was so horrible looking,” Barbara Blair Randall, president of the
Fashion Center Business Improvement District, said at a launch party
for the pop-up shop last night. “All the windows were covered in brown
paper. It wasn’t a nice sight for pedestrians.” To spruce up Eighth Avenue, the BID and the Times Square Alliance –
which promotes economic development and public improvements in Times
Square –  approached the Port Authority to turn the space into a
temporary place to support young designers and artists, combining the spirits of the Garment District south of the Port Authority and theater scene to the north.
[more]