Why We Need To Rethink Vacant Retail Spaces

Walking down any street in New York City, the signs of mom-and-pop stores of yesteryear are hard to miss. Over the last decade, thousands of small retailers have closed to make way for bigger retail chains, and now real estate overpricing is eviscerating quintessential New York neighborhoods entirely, pushing even the big box chains out. The effect? A rise in storefront vacancies that’s causing landlords to rethink how they fill their spaces in this new climate. And it’s pretty urgent.

Mayor de Blasio just announced a potential vacancy fee or vacancy tax to penalize landlords who leave their storefronts vacant for long periods of time, possibly even making them register it in an official database. The days of sitting on empty retail spaces in order to get top-dollar rent are over and neighborhoods need to return to their original draw of bringing a community together through thriving stores and spaces..    ...more

RSK: I like the concept but what I do not like is punishing a building owner who has vacant space by taxing them. Any landlord wants to maximize their bottom line so why would they want to keep a store front vacant? Just leasing to anyone to fill the space can lead to more problems if the tenant cannot pay, their products and services are not good or do not meet the market demand and they skip out. Lots of work to get a tenant in a shop. Seems whomever wrote this has not owned any retail space and has had to lease it out.