Flatiron is in shambles.
The once-thriving Manhattan business district is now a virtual wasteland littered with empty storefronts — with locals blaming spiking crime and the Big Apple’s disastrous post-pandemic retail real estate market.
“Big Box” retailers — including Lowes, Bed Bath & Beyond and Staples — have fled in the last few years, leaving one of the city’s shopping meccas peppered with vacant retail space.
“Some people have tried opening up new businesses in the empty stores on Sixth Avenue, but most didn’t survive four or five months.
“Inflation is through the roof,” he noted. “How can you balance your expenditures and income? Work from home has also hurt our businesses because so many corporate buildings are vacant.”
The Post counted nearly a dozen empty storefronts along Sixth Avenue between West 16th and West 21st Streets on Monday.
Those included one-time anchor stores like Bed Bath & Beyond, which was located at 620 Sixth Avenue, between West 18th and West 19th streets, before shuttering last July.
State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar called the scourge “the sign of a decaying community.”
“It’s like a cancer. The more stores close, fewer want to return. The Flatiron District is not the same,” Kassar told The Post.
Happened in Cali too. San Francisco, LA….stores closing because of high crime.
h/t Phen