The East Village’s economy is crumbling, a new study found.
About 19 percent of the neighborhood’s storefronts — 331 out of 1,776 — were vacant in October 2021, a 5 percent increase from the same time in 2019, according to a report from the Cooper Square Committee, Village Preservation and the East Village Community Coalition.
They concluded the main culprits were pandemic shutdowns, rising advertising costs, rents going up, and difficulties in finding skilled workers.
“The number of vacant storefronts in the neighborhood grew as many merchants struggled to keep their businesses afloat and some were forced to shutter their doors,” the study said.
Kristian Sorge, who opened the Limited One Record Shop on E. 10th Street five years ago, said landlords aren’t interested in providing space for small businesses.
“Landlords want to rent to something big like a bank or a franchise,” he said. “They’re just waiting for the big paycheck to come, so they keep the rents really high instead of trying to cultivate a community around the East Village.”
Businesses are also dealing with rampant crime as petit larcenies in the 9th Precinct, which patrols East Village, have shot up 140 percent since this time last year.
“People are shoplifting from bodegas all the time in the neighborhood, and they’re not getting charged. How are you supposed to pay the rent like that?,” said Rob Rossi, who bartends at International Bar on 1st Avenue. “You walk around avenues D and C and a lot of those stores are gone. The whole neighborhood is just getting very chaotic.”
The types of businesses disappearing the most include tailors, tattoo shops, dry cleaners, ice cream parlors, hardware stores, bars and restaurants, the study found.
On the flipside, bookstores, bike shops, record shops, art galleries, wine and liquor stores, pet stores and bodegas are thriving.
The study identified hotspots for wasted potential such as the retail space attached to the New York City Housing Authority’s First Houses on Avenue A and the Steiner East Village luxury condos, which still has 11,300 square-feet of empty commercial space even after it was completed in 2017.
