Soho is in a snit over big stores, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is suddenly rolling over to accommodate the area’s voters.
As The Post’s Melissa Klein reported, the NYC Department of Buildings is peppering certain large Soho retailers with violations of the local manufacturing zoning code, which does not allow pure apparel stores of more than 10,000 square feet.
But under the head-scratching rules, items such as sporting goods, stationery, hardware, shoes, furniture and textiles are permitted. And if a store created separate women’s, men’s and pet areas, for instance, each could be up to 10,000 square feet, explained one source.
This sudden municipal flurry of fines comes after some 40 years of looking the other way and allowing retail to thrive in Soho, turning it from a filthy artist enclave to a worldwide fashion and shopping destination — albeit with many gridlocked streets and sidewalks.
In March, Stephen Meringoff pleaded his case to the local community board, hoping to get a special permit to turn his 45,000-square-foot 462 Broadway into one big store. He was roundly dissed.
But at an April quality-of-life meeting hosted by the SoHo Broadway Initiative, Aurora Capital’s Jared Epstein, who is on the organization’s board of directors, said the overwhelming issue was the numerous street vendors.
Only City Councilwoman Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer — who has already restricted Upper West Side stores through frontage requirements — mentioned the size of stores as being an issue.
SoHo Broadway Business Improvement District executive director Mark Dicus said, “Our efforts are on making live-work work for those who live, work and visit the area.”
The BID is examining how the zoning currently functions along Broadway, with an eye on creating a resource, he said.
The politicians and the local voters — some of whom have lived there through the area’s transformation, others who came in more recently, perhaps without their ears and eyes open — forget how much these stores contribute to city coffers.
Remember that property taxes for commercial buildings are based on their income.
Take Uniqlo. The five-story store building at 546 Broadway was so in the hole in the 1990s that owners didn’t pay taxes and the property was in the city’s 1996 lien sale.
The owners even tried the legal path and obtained a waiver from the Department of City Planning to convert the ground floor to retail of 11,478 square feet and the basement to retail with storage.
According to that permit, the second and third floors were to be artists’ live-work quarters.
Finally, Uniqlo leased the first floor and basement along with a showroom and offices on the second floor to total about 52,000 square feet.
After the lease with Uniqlo began, the building’s 2007 tax payment more than doubled — from $200,000 a year to almost $500,000. The apparel retailer renewed and expanded its offices there in 2013 to 78,158 square feet.
This year, taxes will be about $1.7 million, with another $9,094 to the SoHo Broadway Initiative.
Retailer Hollister signed a lease in 2007 for a store at 600 Broadway at Houston Street. Since fashion fortunes are fickle, it is now trying to sublease its 46,000-square-foot corner flagship.
According to the Savills Studley brochure, its 25,206 square feet on the second and third floors can also be used as offices. There are another two lower levels.
The six-story building will pay $3.67 million to the city and another $15,800 just to the BID. This is $57 per square foot in taxes — even more than some skyscrapers.
Brokers blame the rash of violations on the 55,000-square-foot Nike at 529 Broadway, which as a sporting goods store is legal but created an initial opening burst of “noise and craziness.” Since then, Nike has been responsive to the community, they say.
The worry by area owners and brokers is that the old zoning law written to save now-extinct manufacturers has become a gotcha that until now has been ignored by the city.
“Will they just fine them or stop [them] from doing business?” worried one broker.
With a fine of just $800, the building owners won’t lock out tenants, but it’s now time for New York City to quickly re-examine that zoning and put sporting goods and apparel on equal “square feet.”
