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Yager Esthetics on Ft. Washington Avenue and W. 165th Street is one business that is on the upswing, doubling in size in June and growing to 13 employees.
While it is difficult to measure with great accuracy how the Northern Manhattan economy is faring, two recent events provide different snapshots of how small shopkeepers are faring in difficult times.
The Washington Heights and Inwood Retail Report, released last month by Massey Knakal Realty Services’ First Vice President of Sales Robert Shapiro, compares Northern Manhattan’s five major commercial corridors by using street level counts from 2008 and earlier this year.
Overall, the report tallied a total of 1,565 storefronts – including vacancies – which was 21 fewer than in 2008, due mainly to stores expanding in size.
The biggest change in the data was that the number of vacancies has increased 38 percent, from 107 to 148; 22 of those storefronts have been vacant since 2008.
Between the increased number of vacancies and consolidation of storefronts, there are 62 fewer establishments operating now than in 2008. While Shapiro’s report did not track employment data, the contraction likely means that there are fewer potential jobs along Northern Manhattan’s major business corridors as well.
The most volatile industry was the category Massey Knakal called clothing, shoes, accessories. It represents the second largest sector in Northern Manhattan, with a total of 213 businesses. While it had the greatest number of new businesses opening, 37, it also lost the largest number of establishments for a net decrease of 17 businesses from 2008.
Restaurants continue to be Northern Manhattan’s largest industry, as defined by Massey Knakal’s categories, and one of its most visible, with numerous recent high profile openings. Shapiro’s report counted 227 restaurants. But even though there were 26 new openings, there was a net decrease of four establishments since 2008 as 30 have closed.
Perhaps the most eye-opening data to emerge from the report is which commercial corridor fetches the highest average storefront rent: the average price range on St. Nicholas Avenue around W. 181st Street tops out at $125 a square foot, more than along W. 207th Street, Dyckman Street, W. 181st Street and Broadway, the other corridors included in the report.
Anecdotally, there appears to be a lot of activity throughout the district with both openings and closing giving a mixed picture of how businesses are faring. On W. 181st Street over the last few weeks both Emilou’s Café and Fumee cigar shop closed their doors. But on Broadway Green Well Produce recently opened at W. 193rd Street and Yummy Thai is poised to open soon near W. 207th Street.
Despite the contraction in the number of businesses, Shapiro, who brokers deals for entire buildings, is upbeat on the overall economic health of the community. He points to a large amount of recent money flowing in, an indication that investors believe Northern Manhattan is on the upswing. He also notes that over the last two years 205 new businesses have opened as entrepreneurs try to cater to consumers’ shifting needs.
Some of the changing dynamics in the business community were not captured by Shapiro’s report. For instance, it only counted street level store fronts, not businesses on the upper floors. At the Inwood Center on 5030 Broadway alone there are over 40 new leased spaces that didn’t exist at the time of the 2008 report. And of course the count didn’t capture storefronts beyond the main shopping districts.
That means that the growth of Yager Esthetics was not included.
Nestled at the foot of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on Ft. Washington Avenue and W. 165th Street, Yager Esthetics (formerly Yager Plastic Surgery) has recently expanded to 6,000 square feet, doubling its size and growing to 13 employees. It opened with one employee in 1997.
The expansion, long in the works, was a result of a spike in business.
“Dr. Yager really needed the space, we got really busy,” said practice director Johanna Rodriguez. “He wanted to stay in the neighborhood.”
The colorfully painted clinic does about 80 percent of its business in plastic surgery and 20 percent as a spa. Most of the customers are Latino and about 70 percent are from Northern Manhattan, although patients have come from as far away as California and Rhode Island.
The majority of the surgical procedures are what are called “mommy makeovers,” typically for women who had children at a young age, although a growing segment of the business is men seeking liposuction and nose surgery.
The elaborate network of corridors and rooms radiating from the central waiting room offers lots of space to hang artwork, creating mini-galleries throughout the clinic. (The current exhibiting artists will be on hand to discuss their work on August 4’s First Thursday Stroll.)
Dr. Yager, who did his residency at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, sees the potential to offer additional fields to his practice, such as weight loss and oral hygiene, to become a center of Spanish specialties.
“He wants something that is a gem in Washington Heights, where you get the same services as on Park Avenue but in our community,” Rodriguez said.
View a copy of the Massey Knakal report at: www.masseyknakal.com/downloads/2010_Washington_Heights_and_Inwood_Retail_Report.pdf.
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