NEW YORK — Anyone who doubts that a store on West 34th Street can produce big sales need only walk into the Gap on the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 34th Street when the store opens its doors in the morning. If the previous day’s sales tally was better than the day before, the manager runs throughout the store ringing a bell and shouting something to the effect of, “You did super yesterday!”
Super may not be a strong enough superlative for a store that rings up an estimated $60 million a year, or $1,200 a square foot, in sales, making it one of the top-producing units in the Gap chain.
The reputation for impressive sales is one reason fashion and footwear chains, jewelers and booksellers are trying to muscle their way into the high-traffic area.
According to the 34th Street Partnership, a coalition of property owners and city officials working to revitalize the area, 100 million people pass through the four corners of 34th Street and Broadway annually. One million public transit users a day walk through the district. The busiest street corner, Seventh Avenue on the northeast corner of 34th Street, sees 21,000 pedestrians in the peak morning hours of 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. The evening peak, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., gets even more people.
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“The district’s volume of shoppers is so immense that many retailers know it can support more than one location,” said the Partnership’s associate director, Lisa Rosenthal. “There are a number of national retailers with two or three stores in the district. Some with two are actively looking for a third location. Many have their highest-volume flagships on 34th Street.”
The recent leasing activity on 34th Street has been frenetic:
Demand for real estate has pushed up rent prices. The most desirable block on the north side of 34th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues — where there are such retailers as Zara, H&M, Ann Taylor Loft and Victoria’s Secret — fetches close to or above $300 a square foot, property owners and brokers said.
Jeff Sutton, who recently acquired 40 West 34th Street and subsequently leased the retail space to American Eagle Outfitters, said that the south side of the street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, which was never as popular as the north side, is becoming more desirable as new stores join the block.
The area, which had long been known as a haven for discount stores, began switching over to moderately or slightly higher-priced stores with fashionable merchandise about six years ago. Banana Republic, H&M, Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor Loft, Zara, Nine West and Express have since opened, and Lane Bryant is soon to arrive.
The two malls in the district also are changing. The retail component of Manhattan Mall has been downsized to four levels, including a newly designed lower-level food court with a fountain. Mark Teitelbaum, one of the principals of Argent Ventures, which owns the property, no longer considers the venue a vertical shopping center. “With four levels, it’s a horizontal urban power center,” he said. “We have 800,000 square feet of office space above the third floor.
“When the mall was on nine levels, stores on upper levels did $500 to $600 a square foot,” he said. “Stores on the lower levels did $1,000 a square foot plus. We decided nine levels of retail wasn’t the best use of the space.”
Herald Center on Broadway and 34th Street has struggled to remain viable since it was financed by Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in the early Eighties. Toys ‘R’ Us, which occupied three floors, decamped to Times Square, where it opened its largest unit in the world in 2001. Daffy’s, Modell’s, Mrs. Field’s and Staples have remained.
Randy Briskin, vice president of leasing and development for The Feil Organization, which owns the mall, said the newly opened Lush Cosmetics unit is doing double its initial projections. Other tenants include the Department of Motor Vehicles, Fleet Bank and Hat and Cap. Feil is remodeling the exterior, building a main lobby entrance and streamlining the signage.
Joanne Podell, a broker at Cushman & Wakefield, is looking for more space for Nine West on the street to complement the shoe chain’s existing store; Starbucks, which already operates seven units in the area, including a new store in Pennsylvania Station, continues to look for additional locations, according to David Firestein, president of Northwest Atlantic Realty, which works with the coffee chain. Motherhood Maternity is said to be looking for a street-level space to replace its second-floor store, the second for the chain, on 34th Street.
Even Patti Lee, senior vice president and general manager of Macy’s, can’t find a downside to all the activity — at least not for the record. “The more that the neighborhood upgrades in terms of the quality of the shops,” she said, “the better it is for everyone because it becomes a shopping destination as opposed to a one-horse town.”
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