About 1 in 10 retail units in Soho, whose retail scene has fared better than some of Manhattan’s other neighborhoods post-pandemic, are sitting empty.
Ninety-two of the neighborhood’s 812 stores are listed for lease, according to an analysis by The Real Deal, whose data team walked the streets between May 20 and May 29 to track empty storefronts in the area. That’s about 11 percent.
Overall, the neighborhood’s vacant square footage totals at least 370,000 square feet, according to TRD’s analysis of listings where available. That total is incomplete, as not all vacancies had listings.
For comparison, roughly 20 percent of stores in the Meatpacking District are vacant, a previous analysis by TRD found.
Soho has stood out among Manhattan neighborhoods after a tough period for the retail sector.
The neighborhood’s median asking rent for retail has risen by 7.5 percent from the first quarter of 2024 to the same time this year to $385 per square foot, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report. Its availability rate fell by 70 basis points during this time to 11 percent, which was below the 13.5 percent rate across Manhattan’s top shopping districts, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
The neighborhood was one of only two prime retail areas in the borough, along with Madison Avenue, that saw its median asking rent grow year over year. Soho also saw a 6.3 percent yearly spike in visitors — to 3.2 million — during that time, per the commercial real estate brokerage.
Christopher Owles is a principal at Sinvin, whose firm is representing several Soho property owners looking for tenants. The neighborhood’s aesthetic appeal helped it bounce back more quickly than others, he said.
“When the pandemic was in full swing, the Midtown office district was pretty empty,” Owles said. “People at that point were looking for signs of life, a sense of community, and that was something more easily seen in Soho.”
Owles said he has seen “healthy growth” in the neighborhood, and that the recent challenging financial and geopolitical climate has tempered asking rents from spiking too high, too quickly.
“In the retail world, you can’t do business without a shop, so in the end, [companies] accept that there’s some lack of certainty,” said Owles. As a result, “rents have been a little more within reach.”
The largest retail vacancy is at fast fashion retailer Topshop’s former outpost at 480 West Broadway, which is owned by KPG Funds and LaSalle Global Partner Solutions. But it won’t be for long, as Los Angeles Apparel recently inked a deal to take on the nearly 25,000-square-foot space for its first store in the city, the New York Post reported.
A few doors down, the retail space at 462 Broadway, which spans 23,400 square feet across two floors, is also tenantless; the site is the second-largest retail vacancy, according to TRD’s analysis.
Here is a closer look at Soho’s empty storefronts (from May 20 through May 29).
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