The Gorham Building at Bway/19th

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.

What happened to the brisk flower business at the corner deli on University and 13th? It’s been swept away. No explanation.

According to this NY Times story:

The city’s Department of Transportation has declared its pedestrian plaza on the north side of Union Square, the fourth such major street revamping along Broadway, an out-and-out success, despite some early qualms from residents.

The redesign, implemented about a year ago, banned most cars from the block of Broadway north of Union Square, between 17th and 18th Streets, and closed a traffic lane on Union Square North. Tables and chairs were placed on the closed-off areas, and the neighborhood’s green market was able to expand.

The idea was to simplify a particularly tricky intersection where a confusing jumble of traffic signals and two-directional car lanes had resulted in a string of pedestrian injuries.

But the plan initially met stiff opposition from residents and businesses in the area, who complained about traffic jams on residential streets and problems for delivery trucks. A raucous community board meeting resulted in outcry and a mass walkout from protesters.

One year later, the city’s traffic engineers say that the improvements, for cars and pedestrians alike, have been palpable. (Here’s a pdf link to the report.) And no businesses or store managers appear to have registered complaints with local officials.

Radar samples found that about 12 percent of cars on Broadway between 20th and 19th Streets were now exceeding the 30 mile-per-hour speed limit, down from 28 percent of cars before the changes. Pedestrians can navigate a shorter crosswalk at the north end of Union Square, and they are waiting a shorter time for a “walk” signal.

Bicycle riders, who benefited from an additional protected lane along East 17th Street, also appear to be enjoying the changes: the agency found a 16 percent jump in cyclists in the area on weekdays, and a 33 percent increase on weekends.

Still, automobile drivers now appear to be avoiding the stretch of Broadway south of Madison Square, where the street was reduced to a single lane of car traffic and the direct car connection through Union Square was severed.

The number of cars traveling on that stretch has dropped by about half since the plaza was installed, the report said. Some of those drivers may be choosing to take Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue South for southbound trips through the area, slightly slowing those routes. The average speed of taxis along Fifth Avenue fell slightly after the plaza was installed, and southbound trips on Park Avenue South took longer.

But the Transportation Department noted that average speed along West 18th Street, where residents were most fearful of jam-ups, rose by about 14 percent, to 7 m.p.h. from 6 m.p.h. And average speeds on Park Avenue South stayed relatively unchanged.

The Union Square Partnership, the neighborhood’s economic development group, conducted a door-to-door survey of area businesses, and 60 percent of those who responded said they were happy with the new traffic configuration. About 35 percent had no opinion.

Still to be determined: some illegal left turns at the always-dangerous perpendicular intersection of Union Square West and 14th Street. (Initially, the agency had hoped to close off parts of Union Square West entirely, but some businesses objected.) The city said it was working on new street adjustments to tackle the problem.

The Real Deal reports:

Beauty brand NYX Cosmetics signed a lease for a new store on Union Square West, a 2,800-square-foot space on the ground floor of Brause Realty’s 75,000-square-foot commercial building at 41 Union Square West, at the corner of East 17th Street. The lease was signed earlier this month. It’s where Starbucks was before it moved.

The youth-focused chain chose a location close to New York University and nestled among a concentration of cosmetics stores ringing Union Square, including Fresh, Bluemercury and Sephora, each within a block of the new location. On the south side of Union Square, Estee Lauder’s MAC inked a lease at the Feil Organization’s 853 Broadway two years ago.

It was huge hit when it arrived a year ago, but it looks like the Nutella Cafe has become another victim of COVID.