Tiffany & Co. on Union Square West, 1899

ByDon

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  • Second Quarter Updates from the Union Square Partnership

    ByDon

    Union Square’s Competitive Edge

    Exemplifying a “15-minute neighborhood,” Union Square offers a wealth of local amenities including dining, shopping, culture, entertainment, and healthcare, all within walking distance or a short bike-ride. A true mixed-use neighborhood, Union Square’s residents, offices, retail, and institutions help sustain a vibrant public realm, with recent visitor traffic reaching 98% of 2019 levels. Office leasing remains active, with over 450K sf of office space leased since January 2022 across tech, finance, publishing, and other sectors.

    Union Square’s 126 new businesses are comprised of 54% eateries, 28% retail, and 18% neighborhood services such as health and wellness. USP and creative partners work year-round to bring unique cultural, food, and art experiences to the square. Events like the eight-week Summer in the Square series, Urbanspace’s Holiday Market, and seasonal pop-ups draw foot traffic and support local business and arts communities.

    Union Square’s Rich Mix of Commercial Businesses

    Union Square-14th Street is home to high-profile institutions and headquarters across a range of sectors including technology, media, finance, and design. This rich mix of commercial tenants continues to be a major draw. Additionally, Union Square is center of gravity for live entertainment, arts, and culture. According to the data platform Replica, spending on entertainment doubled between 2019 and 2023 and visits in the district rose by 10% between 2022 and 2023, reaching a high of 98% compared to August 2019, a 10% higher average than Midtown Manhattan.

    “Industry leaders like Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, and Wellington Management are choosing Union Square for their newest offices. Coupled with strong leasing activity at the ground floor, these new tenancies demonstrate the area’s appeal across sectors,” says Julie Stein, Executive Director, Union Square Partnership. “National retailers including Parachute, Crate & Barrel and Target are joining local favorites ABC Carpet, Fishs Eddy and Design Within Reach to solidify Union Square as a retail destination for interior design and home essentials.”

    USQ Thrives as a Job Center

    Union Square is a job center with 144K+ workers across sectors. Top employers include Con Edison, Mount Sinai Downtown, New York University, and The New School. In the coming year, the addition of national brands, and new and renovated hotels in the area will bring additional retail and hospitality job opportunities. This summer, Microsoft moved into its new 150K sf office space at 122 Fifth Avenue. The building’s ground floor is nearly fully leased with prominent brands Allbirds, Parachute, and Pandora, and Levain Bakery planning to open in early 2024.

    Zero Irving (124 East 14th Street) has made headlines for leasing nearly 100% of its office space to major tech and finance firms including GameChanger (25K sf) and Sequoia Capital (13K sf). Additionally, the 10K sf Urbanspace food hall introduced 13 vendors to the 14th Street food scene. Over 65K sf of retail space has been leased since January 2022 to national brands, such as Petco’s 30k sf flagship location on Union Square East, and NYC favorites such as Hex & Co board game café, Sweet Chick, and Kazunori.

    “Because we’re located in the heart of the NYC tech community, Civic Hall @ Union Square’s six floors of state-of-the-art training and conference center space at the new Zero Irving building will drive sustainable pathways to high-tech jobs. Civic Hall will help supply the tech workforce and spur innovation for industry leaders, the community, the City of New York, and beyond.” Seema Shah, Executive Director, Civic Hall

    New and Coming Soon’

    Looking ahead into the Fall, we are excited to welcome Upright Citizens Brigade, Crate & Barrel, Saatva, Mission Ceviche, and many more businesses to the neighborhood.

    • FÖRENA, a 50-unit luxury condominium development at 540 Sixth Avenue featuring 6K SF of new retail space for lease, finished construction in July 2023.

    • NYU is relocating the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service to 105 East 17th Street in Fall 2024, bringing over 860 students and over 200 faculty to Union Square.

    • Target will open a 33K SF store at 10 Union Square East, establishing over 75 new jobs and creating a retail anchor and local amenity for 14th Street.

  • 14th St. Busway Appears to Be Real, 13th St. Bike Lane Permanent

    ByDon

    From Metro:

    The L train “slowdown” will come with bus priority on 14th Street after all.

    The de Blasio administration will ban private through-traffic on 14th Street between Third and Ninth avenues as part of a new pilot street design to help speed up buses during the L train’s Canarsie tunnel reconstruction, according to a draft release of the plans obtained by amNewYork.

    But the changes won’t come until June, more than a month after the subway rehabilitation work begins.

    Under the city’s plans, the new stretch of 14th Street will consist of four lanes, two in each direction: the center lanes will be dedicated to bus and truck traffic, while the outer curbside lanes will be reserved for truck loading and local traffic looking to make pickups, drop-offs or to access garages along the block.

    Private vehicles in these lanes will be required to turn right, off the street, at the next possible opportunity and left turns will be barred. The city, in the draft release, said it drew inspiration from the King Street project in Toronto, where similar vehicular restrictions were put in place to improve cripplingly slow streetcar service on the major city artery.

    A City Hall spokesman did not immediately respond to questions on the draft plan and declined to confirm its details.

    New M14 Select Bus Service will roll out with the street changes in June, along with additional painted pedestrian space at intersections. The city plans to use automated cameras to enforce the rules of the road.

    The city Department of Transportation will conduct “significant outreach,” including to the five different community boards overlapping 14th Street, and will promote education campaigns for people who commute on the block, the draft release states. There doesn’t appear to be any space dedicated for parking in the plan.

    The city also plans to announce that bike infrastructure projects on Manhattan’s 12th and 13th streets, as well as Grand Street in Brooklyn, will be made permanent. Grand Street’s protected bike lanes will be adjusted to add more loading zones and metered parking, and to “help accommodate the needs of industrial businesses along this section of the corridor,” according to the draft release.

    Under the original plan, the city had pitched a bus-only corridor along 14th Street for 17 hours of the day, but from the outset, the DOT had assured that local pickups and drop-offs would be accommodated.

    The city has been criticized for dragging its feet on the fate of 14th Street. The new design comes just days before L train tunnel reconstruction begins Friday evening. Advocates have long called for a dedicated busway on 14th Street to help alleviate potentially dangerous overcrowding at stations during the work, which will take place during nights and weekends for 15 to 18 months.

    During the night-and-weekend work, the MTA will run three trains per hour, at 20-minute intervals, between the Bedford Avenue station and through Manhattan. That service schedule translates to an 80% reduction in trains at certain hours. The authority advised riders this week that they may not be able to even fit on the first trains rolling into their stations.

  • Union Sq. Park Restaurant Moves Ahead

    ByDon

    The Villager reports:

    State Supreme Court Justice Jane S. Solomon on Monday dismissed the lawsuit filed last year challenging the Department of Parks’ reconstruction of the pavilion at the north end of Union Square Park.

    The dismissal means that the reconstruction of the pavilion, which is currently underway, can proceed and include the infrastructure for a seasonal restaurant.

    Members of the Union Square Community Co-alition and NYC Park Advocates had sued to block the entire reconstruction of the north end of the park and the plaza north of the park, claiming that the city failed to comply with state environmental laws and city land-use procedure, and that preparing the pavilion for private use as a seasonal restaurant was an illegal alienation of public land.

    Judge Solomon ruled on March 30 that all aspects of the rehabilitation project were in a category of actions that do not require any further environmental review than was already conducted by the Parks Department.

    The judge ruled also that the alienation claim was “not ripe” because a final determination of the use of the pavilion is subject to further administrative action — namely a request for proposals, or R.F.P., from private concessionaires to operate a restaurant. At the same time, the judge found that the zoning and land-use procedure issues were also “not ripe” because they rest on allegations that the operation of a restaurant would relinquish control of the park.

    Nevertheless, she held that the plaintiffs would have the right to file a lawsuit later in the process.

    Solomon said that operating an eating establishment in the park is consistent with public purpose, noting that the area around the pavilion, now being converted into an expanded playground, was previously used as the outdoor restaurant Luna Park Cafe. But she also said that not all restaurants in city parks would necessarily be permissible.

    Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe hailed the verdict, saying, “We are gratified at the court’s decision to allow us to continue the restoration of Union Square Park’s historic pavilion with public space and a seasonal concession. The pavilion is part of the Union Square Park’s north-end renovation, which includes a playground three times larger than previously, a restored plaza and many more trees.