Madison Avenue Adapts Amid Vacancies and Consumer Spending Shifts

There's still a silver lining to Madison Avenue, even with shopper traffic down, record vacancies and luxury brands banking on e-commerce while curtailing brick-and-mortar growth.

America's most famous high street has a built-in local clientele that makes the avenue less dependent on tourist shopping, which has fallen nationwide. Events and activities organized by the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District geared to drum up traffic and bring greater cohesion to the community are growing in number. Madison is clean and well-policed, and some retailers, such as Golden Goose and Stella McCartney, associated as "downtown" brands with locations in SoHo or lower Manhattan have or are moving on Madison Avenue, adding a different dimension in terms of goods, services and appeal.