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The vacant storefront at 225 Broadway is formerly the home of a Republic National Bank branch. Photo: Carl Glassman\/Tribeca Trib<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to walk down a Lower Manhattan block without passing an empty storefront, or two, or three. Just how much local retail life is missing from Downtown neighborhoods? In a new report, the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce<\/a> has documented the numbers and the news may be worse than imagined.<\/p>\n Lower Manhattan, as defined by the area covered by Community Board 1, suffers the worst vacancy rate in Manhattan, according to the study for 2025. A little over 22% of retail spaces are shuttered, the organization\u2019s Storefront Retail Tracker found.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maggie Paruta of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce presented the findings April 13 to a stunned Land Use, Zoning and Economic Development Committee of CB1.<\/p>\n More concerning still is what the study showed for the sub-area, largely the Financial District, which is covered by the Downtown Alliance. At least one-quarter of those retail spaces were empty through the third quarter of 2025\u2014dropping to 23.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the report. That number, however, is at odds with the Alliance\u2019s own figure of 22.1% for all of 2025, close to the district-wide average.<\/p>\n The data showed that a storefont vacancy rise from 17% in pre-Covid 2020 to 22% in the years since has remained largely unchanged. (The fourth quarter of 2025 indicated a \u201cnotable\u201d vacancy decline of 2%, Paruta said.)<\/p>\n An updated version of the report is due in June, detailing the types of businesses moving in and out of local storefronts, Paruta noted. \u201cAnecdotally, I do know that there are more experience-based retail storefronts popping up, so more nail salons, spas, gyms, cafes, places that people can spend time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\u201cThank you for letting us know what we\u2019re up against,\u201d said committee member Rosa Chang. \u201cIt\u2019s horrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There are ongoing efforts to stem the vacancy tide. Among other initiatives, the Downtown Alliance in January launched its RE:Store<\/a> program, which supports pop-up storefront businesses and provides grants to entrepreneurs. The Tribeca Alliance Merchants Association<\/a> focuses on the marketing and collaboration of local businesses. And the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce is an information resource and advocate for small businesses.<\/p>\n
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Patrick Hall,\u00a0co-owner of Elon Flowers in Tribeca and a board member of both the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce and the Tribeca Alliance, said he wants the city to establish a better relationship with small businesses. \u201cThe systems we operate within are often fragmented, time-consuming, and difficult to navigate, especially for small operators without dedicated compliance staff,\u201d he said in a statement read by Paruta to the committee. He cited, among other needed bureaucratic disentanglements, a streamlining of processes across city agencies and creating \u201cclear points of contact for business owners.\u201d<\/p>\n