D’ag Dead

From Crain’s New York Business:

The P.C. Richard & Son store near Union Square is going the way of the cathode ray television set and VCRs.

The city’s Economic Development Corp. has announced a request for proposals to redevelop a city-owned site at 124 E. 14th St. that for the past 19 years has been home to a two-level building occupied by the electronics and appliance store.

The EDC is encouraging developers to pitch projects that include new office space for booming industries in the neighborhood, such as technology and creative businesses. According to the city’s guidelines, the development could provide fledgling companies with the space to get started and also a location for young but established firms to transition from incubator and co-working spaces that have sprouted around the city into their own digs.

Proposals may also include residential space, although a spokesman for the city said the EDC’s goal is an office-focused development. Current zoning on the site, however, would seem to encourage a residential component. About 140,000 square feet of housing can be built at the address versus about 93,00 square feet of commercial space. A project could be a blend of the two.

Midtown South has become the city’s hottest office market, with space in the vicinity of Union Square especially popular for its access to transit, shopping, restaurants and tony residential neighborhoods.

“The current site of the PC Richard store will serve as a new tech hub in Union Square, capitalizing on the academic and transit advantages offered by the neighborhood and its proximity to the Flatiron district,” said Maria Torres-Springer, president of the EDC, in a statement. “This is just one example of how we are finding creative uses for the assets we have in a city where space is harder and harder to come by.”

Bids for the property are due by February, the spokesman said, which is the same month that P.C. Richard’s lease is set to expire.

Thanks to Chris Heald for digging up two more photos of the “good old days,” when 14th St. was quite rough around the edges.

Thanks to Charles Stimson for purchasing and sharing these four photographs from the city archives. Shot for a tax survey in 1939, they show our block and are full of fascinating detail if you click on them to blow them up and look a little closer. Wouldn’t you love to stop off at Marty’s Luncheon for a sandwich? As New York races into the future, it’s quite a thrill to be able to look back and remind ourselves how things used to be.

Soon to arrive in the former location of Xu’s Public House in the lavish condo at 15 Union Square West will be Le Basque, a kosher and vegan take on northeastern Spanish cuisine. Interesting.

Union Square is bustling, with robust foot traffic recovery, a strong roster of new retail and office tenants, and new mixed-use residential developments in the pipeline.

Key data points from the last 12 months highlight the district’s strengths:

1.1M SF of office
space leased in the
last 12 months

58K+ average daily
riders at Union Square
-14th Street Station

13% higher visitor
activity on Greenmarket
days in USQ

370K average daily
weekday trips to the
Union Square area

78K+ SF of ground floor
retail space leased in
the last 12 months

Visitor traffic reached
a high of 109% recovery
over January 2020

DISTRICT TRENDS

USQ IS THRIVING
∫ Union Square’s residents have strong spending power,
with average household incomes nearly 75% higher than the
Manhattan average.
∫ By the end of 2023, visitor traffic hit 109% of January 2020
levels, driven by Union Square’s vibrant mix of uses and the
steady return of office workers.
∫ Leading employers choose Union Square, and the biggest
new leases represent finance, technology, hospitality, and
fin-tech.
∫ Union Square grew as a job center, with its workforce
increasing by 12% since 2023 to reach 168K employees.
The tech and innovation sector remains strong, with over 45
companies located in the area.
∫ 43 new businesses opened in the past year, 60% of which
are food and beverage establishments. Indicating a return to
in-person dining, the number of new sit-down restaurants in
the district increased by 25% over the number that opened in
the previous year.