Will rents make UWS a retail ghost town?

By Matthew Lysiak | Special to amNewYork

Parents looking to do any back-to-school shopping for their kids at a popular Upper West Side mainstay this week were instead greeted by the face of death.

After more than 60 years of outfitting children for summer camp and supplying their back-to-school clothes, the old Morris Brothers store at the corner of West 84th Street and Broadway reopened last Wednesday with a Grim Reaper display at the entrance in its new role as a Halloween costume store.

For many local merchants the closing of the popular clothing store and other small shops signifies a harbinger of doom in its own rite, as small business owners fight to survive as the retail face of the neighborhood changes around them.

Independent merchants are spooked because the Morris Brothers store is only the most recent casualty of the retail facelift going on in the Upper West Side. Banks spring up along with chains like Staples, Starbucks, and Barnes and Noble, and independent grocery stores, cleaners and hardware stores keep getting squeezed out.

Last month, Embassy Flowers, located on 91st Street and Broadway for 87 years, left after their rent rose from $15,000 to $60,000. They have since relocated to Clifton, N.J., according to OpenHouseNYC.com.

"The reason these stores have been closing and the ones still standing are having trouble is because rents have been going out of control," said Dorian Thornley, who owns Westsider Rare and Used Books, which three blocks down the road on Broadway near 81st Street.

"I have been here 25 years and there is a definite shift going on and it has been to the detriment of this neighborhood's character."

The rent increase has been difficult for many longtime merchants to absorb.

That's because the neighborhood was long regarded as a fiscal enclave where merchants could expect reasonable rents (at least compared to their downtown neighbors) while still maintaining their city clientele.

But today's soaring rents have signaled a shift away from the independent businesses that once anchored the area and opened the door to the well-funded chains that now line Broadway.

Residents lament this shift has taken away what once made the area unique.

"It definitely isn't a change for the better," said Mayra Llamas, who has lived in the area for more that 20 years. "The stores around here are now beginning to look like every other part of the city."

But don't write-off this neighborhood for dead just yet; after all, the Upper West Side is still home to arguably the most unique grocer in the city. Zabars has been serving cheese and bagels on 80th Street and Broadway since 1934 and is here to stay -- unlike the seasonal costume store in the former Morris Brothers retailer, which will close on Nov. 6th.

Representatives of Eagle Court LLC, which owns the property, were unavailable for comment after repeated attempts at contact.

Still, even as the Grim Reaper gets packed away, the continuing rising rents means that as far as small businesses are concerned, the specter of death will continue to lurk in the Upper West Side.

Other victims
Area merchants who have closed up shop

-Liberty House; Broadway between 91st and 92nd streets after more than 40 years. -Judaica Treasures; W. 72nd St.

-Murder Ink; between 91st and 92nd streets on Broadway

-Ivy's Books and Curiosities, located on Broadway between 92nd and 93rd streets