More details: Found hereNew York City's thousands of empty storefronts, a symbol of the lasting effects of the coronavirus pandemic, are filling up faster than many predicted.
About 16,000 of the city's 143,000 storefronts were empty in the third quarter of this year, for a vacancy rate of just above 11 percent. The share of empty stores has fallen citywide for four straight quarters.
Storefront vacancy rates in Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx specifically are already below 10 percent, which is widely considered a healthy level, the report showed.
"It's remarkable how few storefronts are vacant today," said Jonathan Bowles, the executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, a public policy think tank that reviewed the study. "And so much of it is about food coming to the rescue."
New York has long been a culinary destination, but after four years of stark job losses in other forms of retail, as apparel and electronics sellers have closed, the city is now — perhaps more than ever — relying on dining to brighten its darkened storefronts and bolster the economy.
The shift has been long in the making. From 2000 to 2023, the number of restaurants in the city nearly doubled, climbing to over 21,170, according to an analysis of data from the New York State Department of Labor.
In the same period, there has been a drop in nearly all other types of storefronts, including retail, pet care and professional services. Since 2020, there were 2,200 more closures than openings in so-called dry goods, which include clothing, furniture and beauty products, according to the report.
Mr. Bowles attributed the decline in most types of retail to growing competition from online shopping, and to jobs lost during the pandemic that never came back. For a brief time, unlicensed smoke shops helped prop up the real estate market, but hundreds have recently been shut down in city raids.
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