The Gap store on the corner of 86th Street and Broadway won’t be renewing its lease, according to the realtors now advertising the 12,300-square-foot space for rent. That means it could close anytime between now and February, when the lease runs out.
Gap has one other location in the neighborhood, on 68th Street an Broadway. The company is closing some of its New York locations to save money.
Robert K. Futterman & Associates, the real estate firm trying to rent the spot, is already looking to fill it with another major retailer, saying that the store’s prime location “makes the 2373 Broadway retail space an ideal flagship opportunity for a brand looking to expand its New York City footprint,” according to DNAinfo.
“A retail space like this rarely becomes available on the 86th Street corridor,” Strauss said.
This is just the latest example of a major Upper West Side retail chain succumbing to economic pressures: Filene’s Basement on 79th Street is liquidating, Borders in the Time Warner Center closed in September, and a couple of years earlier Barnes and Noble on 66th Street closed down.
All of those stores were in significant retail locations — on big heavily-trafficked corners, or in Borders’ case, a prime location in the Time Warner Center. And those stores were also the kinds of stores that Upper West Siders used to lament — large bland chains without any particular connection to the neighborhood. That said, Upper West Siders I’ve talked to certainly miss the 66th Street Barnes & Noble. There hasn’t been quite the same outpouring for Filene’s and Borders.
Will we miss the Gap?
