Venture farther north to Hudson Square and you have Trump Soho, increased residential development and an active local office leasing market to thank for improving prospects for future retail growth. Although retail is slow to catch up with the other developments it will be only a matter of time before it does, brokers said.
“The Hudson Square area has just been growing exponentially,” said John Gomes, an executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman.
“We’re almost just at that tipping point of starting to see the emergence that I think is going to have a real mushrooming effect once retail has caught on to the fact that there are people who are ready to explore the neighborhood,” said Amy Williamson, vice president of sales at the Prodigy Group. Retail is slowly coming around.
The area boasts 35,000 office workers and averages a daytime population of 55,000 people, according to the Hudson Square Business Improvement District.
If the area gets more residential development approved—Trinity Real Estate is apparently looking to get the area rezoned to turn some manufacturing space into residential—then it will no longer be “under-retailed,” said Hudson Square Business Improvement District president Ellen Baer during an interview with The Commercial Observer.
“My best retail strategy is to make this a 24/7 community,” she added.
drosen@observer.com
