Bright Nights Out in Union Square

On Saturdays Aug. 3, 10, and 17th, enjoy 8 hours of car free streets on Park Avenue S, Union Sq E and 4th Ave, with countless programs and activities from 7AM to 3PM. Summer Streets provides space for healthy recreation and encourages New Yorkers to use more sustainable forms of transportation.

NYC’s zoning for businesses has recently changed, allowing for a wider range of retail and experiential offerings. In Union Square, this means new opportunities to lease to unique amusement and recreation facilities, live entertainment establishments and clean production and maker spaces. This bolsters the emerging trends in Union Square, where new nightlife hotspots like Midnight Blue and Upright Citizens Bridge have established
roots alongside a cluster of experiential retail arcades like Boba Box, Sweet Cats Cafe, and Partea. And with the much anticipated 2025 opening of the darts-centric bar Flight Club at 31 Union Square West, Union Square is poised to be at the center of this new wave of ground-floor leasing enabled by the modernized zoning code.

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

University Place already has two high-end ice cream shops, now we get a third. Gentile Gelataria actually has a very long history going way back to the old country.

Soon to occupy the former Forbidden Planet space is Zumiez, a store with all the latest skateboard fashions.

Word is that the neighborhood’s first 7-11 convenience store will move in on 14th St. near 6th Ave.