The USP says: “We want to hear from you! Our 2025 Community Opinion Survey is now live. Share your feedback, ideas, and opinions to help shape the future of the Union Square-14th Street District. Your responses help us understand the community’s priorities and how we can better serve you. The survey closes 5:00 PM on Thursday, September 18th, 2025 — take it today!”
It’s a bit of a hike, but the new Wegman’s supermarket at Astor Place is worth a visit because it is so huge and so suburban. Prices are competitive across the board, and the variety of items beats any other store in the area. The sad and tired Gristedes on University Place should be worried.
L’Annam, the Vietnamese restaurant on the corner of University and 13th that closed a few months ago, will become a larger version of the Basics Hardware store that is already on that block next door.
From the current issue of The Villager:
When Danny Meyer opened the Union Square Cafe 24 years ago, area rents hovered around $8 per square foot. Today comparable space could rent for up to $400 per square foot.
The business dilemma of astronomical rents was one of the issues under consideration on Mon., Nov. 10, at the Union Square Partnership Fall Forum titled, “Spotlight on Commercial Diversity in Union Square.”
A panel of four experts joined moderator William H. Kelley, the Partnership’s director of economic development, in a roundtable discussion of the area’s commercial landscape.
More than 75 residents and local business owners attended the forum in the Union Square Ballroom, in what one participant described as an attempt to “think outside the box and look forward.”
Kelley explained the motivation behind the forum:
“In its heyday, Union Square had this wonderful gathering of mom-and-pop businesses,” he told The Villager. “Recently, the area has become an international gathering of businesses.”
Forum participants debated if this evolution was an inevitable result of growth or if there were there any tools the Union Square area or even city government could employ to create a more stable mix of large and small businesses.
“I think Union Square is fascinating,” said panelist Larisa Ortiz, of Larisa Ortiz Associates and a co-author of “Real Estate Redevelopment & Reuse.” “It’s a model and a template that other cities have followed,” she said, noting the presence of iconic restaurants and the Greenmarket.
According to an examination of gentrification trends by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, the number of businesses in the Union Square area rose almost 20 percent from 1990 to 2000, and have grown an additional 8 percent since 2000.
Of those businesses, 11 percent represent food services and “accommodations.” The largest number of retail businesses — 23 percent — are clothing and accessory stores.
Ortiz was concerned how the neighborhood could maintain its character when park-fronting property is privately owned and rents are set by overheated market forces.
“Let’s help interesting speciality business and restaurant spaces on the side streets,” she suggested.
To gauge interest in topics for the forum, the Partnership sent out a questionnaire in September to more than 3,500 local residents and businesses. A question asked what the most important issue facing Union Square is.
The survey drew almost 300 responses. Topping the list of concerns, 43 percent of respondents said pedestrian congestion and safety are of primary importance. Another 24 percent believed addressing the neighborhood’s changing character was paramount. Six percent saw completing reconstruction of the square’s north end as important.
Because the rent is too damn high. As usual.
This view shows the east side of 5th Ave. at 13th St. in 1911. In other words, it’s where the New School now has its main entrance. Down the block on 13th St. you can see the tallish building that is now apartments. Ah, the good old days. Note that even in 1911, those elegant brownstones had seen better days. Since then, three large buildings have stood on this block, so that’s one reinvention about every 35 years.
Credit: New York Public Library Digital Collection.
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