A Crotona Park East storefront

A Bronx community previously dubbed “the worst neighborhood” in the country” by President Jimmy Carter back in the 1970s has since turned around. Crain’s reported that the Crotona Park East section of the Bronx, which in 2008 had a commercial vacancy rate of 24 percent, has seen its commercial vacancy rate drop to 16 percent.

Crain’s said the area should be a thriving retail center, primarily due to its three Subway stations and 90 businesses. [more]

A classic case of bad timing has the group behind a series of Tribeca architecture and fashion pop-up shops, BOFFO Building Fashion, running to fundraising website Kickstarter for help.

DNAinfo reported that BOFFO needs to raise at least $20,000 to see its planned series of five pop-up shops to fruition. The pop-up retail shops were to be a collaboration between five emerging fashion designers and architects running from Fashion Week in September through the end of the year. The stores served as art for the public, retail space for under-the-radar designers and provided a boost for young architects’ portfolios…. [more]

DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan

As many as 12 new pop-up cafés may open in the spring in New York City, if they can gain approval from the Department of Transportation, the Wall Street Journal reported. A two-year pilot program allows temporary seating platforms for restaurants ineligible for sidewalk cafés due to narrow sidewalks or zoning restrictions. The pop-ups were a result of the “tremendous unmet need for quality public space in the city,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, DOT commissioner. “[It] was an innovative way to take a look at solving the riddle of how to create a sidewalk café in a place where there just isn’t enough sidewalk.” The owners of Fika Espresso Bar and Bombay’s Restaurant, on Pearl Street in the Financial District, housed the city’s first pop-up café, which went up in August and is expected to come down in the next two weeks. The DOT is accepting applications until Dec. 3 from eligible restaurants in all five boroughs. According to the Department of Consumer Affairs, the number of sidewalk cafés in the city has been on the rise, reaching 1,126 in the last fiscal year, compared with 884 in fiscal year 2006. [WSJ]

Many pop-up shops are finding that a pop-up status can be a good first step toward permanent residency in New York City. One-time pop-uppers, like Kai D. menswear store at 75 Orchard Street between Grand and Broome streets, are signing long-term leases after their short-term occupancies run out, Crain’s reported. The strategy is also working for desperate landlords, who eagerly sign-on the temporary shops when tenants are hard to come by. After running its temporary shop for a month, Kai D. was able to negotiate a 13-month extension on its lease with its landlord, Dermott Co. Aaron Odle, a representative for Kai D., said that being able to move into the space temporarily helped it take the leap into permanent status. “You really need to be in a space to test it out, and we’ve decided that staying is the right thing to do,” Odle said.