Where Have All the Storefronts Gone: Upper West Side Retail in Crisis?

If Manhattan living is polytheistic then Real Estate is the ultimate god. That’s just one lesson learned as this longtime Upper West Side resident set out to learn more about a problem many people have noticed: far more empty storefronts than a neighborhood of this general affluence should have, and indeed, more than it had when certain sections were more rough and tumble; what’s happening, Jackson?! Especially along Broadway north of 86th Street. Are retail stores and restaurants, the salons and saloons—the things make us us, up close and personal—in crisis?

For good or ill, with the dramatic increase of e-commerce since COVID, many Manhattanites have forsaken retail shopping by using electronic devices to order just about everything. While the troubling uptick in UWS storefront vacancies took hold in the mid-2010s, e-commerce has accelerated the numbers...or has it?

Broadway below 86th Street—the Mason-Dixon Line of the UWS— and above it up to 110th Street have notably different narratives. Indeed, south of 86th Street, there are fewer store vacancies per block than in the recent past.

About 86th Street, however, Broadway denizens can’t help but notice many familiar stores have vanished. What’s going on? Why has our lullaby of Broadway so often become a collective lament?

In search of answers, plural, Straus News Manhattan spoke with two UWS experts: Council Member, former Boro President and indefatigable Manhattan booster, Gale Brewer, and architect and NYU professor Sean Khorsandi, the Executive Director of Landmark West! That exclamation point isn’t just reportorial passion—it’s part of the group’s name, so you know they’re zealots too!

A Tale of Two Broadways

Speaking of the Upper Broadway vacancies from West 86th to 110th Streets, Khorsandi noted limited vacancies along Columbus Avenue suggests is not so much an Upper West Side issue as a Broadway one—Broadway is different.

Some storefronts are empty due to real estate battles. Take 246 West 80th Street, for example. The building, which co-owned and now being fought over by the Zabar and the Friedland families, saw all but one of the commercial storefront tenants of the Broadway-fronting building move out. The Friedlands want to redevelop the site, the Zabars wish to preserve the 127 year-old building.

Looking specifically at the intersection of West 86th Street and Broadway, 2373 Broadway on the intersection’s corner, opened 29 years ago. Street frontage on West 86th Street and Broadway is festooned with for rent signs; while the Gristede’s that was in the basement closed in 2017. In total, commercial broker Jones Lang LaSalle now offers 22,000 square feet of current vacant commercial space here. To put that in perspective, a regulation size basketball court is 4,700 square feet.

Across the street, the former Banana Republic/Gap store is also rentable. In that building, the Belnord, which is now owned by Extell, the developer went to the community board to ask to put a bank there, which doesn’t comply with new regulations. More recently, Extell was reportedly placing a Whole Foods in the former P.C. Richards store in that building. Whole Foods didn’t respond to Straus News request for further information.

The corner small cafe space diagonally across 86th street is also rentable now.

Khorsandi pointed out that 55’ Amazon trucks block traffic lanes, their carts take over the sidewalk and the street and shuttle items around in them, blocking storefronts, making the streets and sidewalks harder to use. This system makes it harder to shop in stores, threatening their survival. People like the convenience of having things delivered, he noted, adding, “A lot of people have either parents or family or second homes that they go to, spending less time in the city. Telecommuting’s flexibility has allowed people to stretch weekends or not spend time in the office.”

Not that that’s Khorsandi’s ideal. To the contrary, he stressed the importance of supporting local stores, even if they are the local branch of a corporate chain.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Khorsandi noted blocks from 100th to 112th Streets along the boulevard are seeing a decrease in vacancies, many older buildings with smaller rentable space, being good amenable to small retail business, unlike newer buildings with larger spaces and higher rents.

A Brewer’s Tale

For Gale Brewer— the solon’s solon when it comes to hyperlocal engagement—the veteran lawmaker pointed to the restrictions of past legislation. Bank fronts, for example, can only be 25’ long, while retail establishments can be 40’ long, unless they were grandfathered in. As far as commercial rentals, she noted that each space has its own issues.

Brewer also talked about the retail theft problem. There are two chain drug stores in her neighborhood, for example. One has a security guard, where there’s little shoplifting, and the other, with no guard, has lots of shoplifting; go figure! Ironically, Brewer added that the two local independent drug stores don’t have these problems. (Likely, avers this reporter, because regular shoplifters know mom and pop drug stores have much less tolerance for crime than corporate ones.)

Brewer also lamented the demise of Westside Kids the beloved toy store which closed in 2025; cause of death: the internet, mostly.

Help is on the way, maybe, however, in the form of the “Storefront Business Bill of Rights” that Brewer and other council members are backing. This legislation would require a written lease for storefront premises, new lease renewal options, require an owner to provide a tenant with relevant information about the storefront premises to be leased. Legal penalties would follow if not adhered to.

Brewer opined this bill make for fewer vacant storefronts, noting that many new leases are for places that businesses that don’t operate online, such as personal grooming, medical offices, educational spaces, and small restaurants.

Having spoken with commercial brokers prior to this interview; Brewer felt the retail storefront climate was getting better, with fewer vacancies, an impression that’s in sync with some other Manhattan business metrics ascending, including commercial real estate broker Cushman and Wakefield report that the Manhattan Retail Store Vacancy Rate for the Third Quarter of 2025 was 12.5 percent, down almost two percent from the Third Quarter of 2024.

“Sometimes,” explained Brewer the optimist, “even though it looks vacant, there is something happening behind the walls, somebody’s paying attention and trying to rent and is interested.”