Many Beloved Shops Don’t Have to Disappear
In a Manhattan neighborhood where utilitarian stores have transformed into trendy eateries, meatpacking businesses were made over as designer dress showplaces, and every other storefront becomes an expensive hair salon, a string of old-school, regular-Joe shops is taking a contrarian stand against rising rents and business displacement.
Along Ninth Avenue where Chelsea meets the Meatpacking District, owners of such businesses as Sweet Banana Candy Store, 9th Ave Gift Shop and Chelsea Liquors, along with their patrons, activist allies and local officials, are pushing back against seemingly inexorable trends. Back in November, Morris Moinian’s Fortuna Realty Group bought the building, which is home to these stores as well as a dry cleaners, Chinese takeout, barbershop and check cashing office, for $31.4 million. Now, Fortuna plans to renovate the strip and try to attract higher-end tenants; it has already told Brian Rhee, who’s owned Chelsea Liquors for 34 years, that he has to vacate by the end of August.
At the liquor store, on the shelf behind the register next to the Johnnie Walker Red is a photo of a rally held on the sidewalk out front in early May. In the photo, people display handmade signs reading “Save Our Shops.” In addition to trying to hold on to community mainstays, however, some of these agitators are looking more broadly at what can be done to retain the familiar in similar situations citywide.
From tailored zoning regulations to special tax arrangements to bringing back an idea from the 1980s of “commercial rent control,” land use analysts are examining the options. State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who represents the area, is one who’s interested in the potential of commercial rent control. “Just as residential rents can drive people out of the community if they’re not protected by rent stabilization, the same can happen with commercial tenants,” says Gottfried. “A neighborhood can have whole blocks or avenues of stores wiped out in a very short period of time as these come due, because landlords can refuse to renew a lease or insist on any rent they can get without limitation. Without some kind of rent law in place, a landlord needs no excuse for throwing residential or commercial tenants out on the street.”
