Latest New School Construction Update

Manhattan’s second legal marijuana store will open in February at the site of the former Chase bank on the corner of Broadway and 13th Street.

When it opens  it will donate 51% of its revenues to the Doe Fund, which helps vulnerable populations in New York City with work, housing, and access to continuing education, career training, and counseling.

The Doe Fund was one of more than a dozen NGOs and businesses to get a dispensary license in November, indicating that the city is poised to see an influx of legal recreational dispensaries.

The 5,000-square-foot area will be a “higher velocity” store, which means it will be designed to accommodate a larger volume of consumers effortlessly, whether they come in to pick up a pre-order or speak with a budtender.

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.

This is Union Square West in the ’40s. The reason all these buildings are so narrow is that the lots originally held townhouses.

Expanded pedestrian space and more cycling lanes are central to a planned redesign of Manhattan’s Broadway between E. 17th and E. 21st streets, city officials announced on Monday.

The changes are subject to public outreach — but Department of Transportation officials said they could mimic a change to other areas of Broadway between Union Square and E. 50th Street, where crews in recent years have added more pedestrian plazas, outdoor dining space and wider crosswalks designed to keep pedestrians safe from crashes.

DOT officials also said they’re considering adding a two-way bike lane between E. 17th and E. 21st streets, which already has a one-way southbound lane for cyclists.

The city earlier this year completed an overhaul of Broadway between E. 25th and E. 32nd streets, adding more space for pedestrians, another two-way bike lane and other infrastructure designed to make motorists drive slower.

“This next phase of Broadway Vision will provide the same kind of vibrant public spaces connecting Union Square and Flatiron, just like our administration is doing with incredible success across the entire city,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.

The latest planned improvements are just north of Union Square — and just south of where a taxi driver jumped a sidewalk last year, sending several pedestrians to the hospital.

Next week (March 5 to March 9), Superstructure work will continue at 6th and 7th floor levels. Deliveries for the internal systems of the building have been ongoing and will continue, although they should not greatly affect the flow of pedestrian and road traffic.

The following week (March 12 to March 16), we will continue superstructure concrete and slabs on the 7th floor level.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, March 3rd for superstructure related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels within the site, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork and concrete, plumbing and electrical work, rebar for concrete placement, using the crane and equipment to support all activities. Safety horns are used, and required by law, to coordinate lifting with the crane and to alert the workers of the danger overhead. We have directed the operators to limit the use of horns to one short sounding and to use the crane later in the day so as to avoid any excess noise.

In addition to the normal work we will be having the boilers delivered to the site on Saturday along the 5th Ave. entrance to the site. The 14th St. Con Ed Vault utility connection street work will continue per DOT Permit granted for weekends only.