Garment District opts to stick with its name

A rose by any other name may smell just as sweet, but the Garment District’s landlords and local business leaders have decided to stick to the area’s tried-and-tested moniker. The decision ends a year-long search for alternative names that would better capture the neighborhood’s evolving dynamic.

Ideas floated over the past several months include MiSo, for Midtown’s South, and the Devil’s Arcade, as the area was known during seedier times. But sticking with the Garment District is a sign that residents aren’t looking for a snazzy new name for a neighborhood that has become increasingly appealing to tech and creative tenants.

“New Yorkers are savvy. They’re smart. You can’t pull one over on them,” Barbara Randall, president of the Fashion Center Business Improvement District, told the Wall Street Journal. Randall’s group – which has been involved in rebranding the neighborhood – will now become the Garment District Alliance.

But some major landlords in the area, such as Newmark Holdings’ Eric Gural, were interested in alternatives. Gural was particularly drawn to the Devil’s Arcade, he told the Journal.

“It was a showstopper,” he said. “You kind of get to start fresh in terms of what that neighborhood is.” [WSJ]  – Hiten Samtani