By Scott Etkin and Lisa Kava
The Bed Bath & Beyond at 1932 Broadway, across from Lincoln Center, is closing at the end of April, according to a store clerk. A liquidation sale has started (all sales are final) and everything in the store is 10% off. This sale will increase to 20% off in the coming weeks. The multi-level store, which sprawls more than 50,000+ square feet, originally opened in 2004. But the struggling retailer has closed almost half of its locations over the past year and is fending off bankruptcy. (Thanks to Maria and Wendi for the tips.)
Pappardella, the Italian restaurant on the corner of W. 75th Street and Columbus, reopened on February 3rd after closing on January 23rd for renovations. The upgrades – including refinished ceilings, a more open entryway, new lighting, and a polished floor – were timed to celebrate the restaurant’s 40th-year anniversary. “It was high time that we put a new glow on the old lady,” said Marion, a general manager and partner at the restaurant. “The goal was to be recognizable. We are Pappardella and I would not in the world want to change that.” The restaurant serves Tuscan food and the menu will stay the same. They also have a separate gluten free menu.
Sephora, the cosmetics chain, had a soft opening for its new location at 1865 Broadway (at 61st Street) on February 6th and is having a full opening on February 10th. Sephora recently closed its location at the Shops at Columbus Circle and it has a longstanding UWS location in the Ansonia building at 2103 Broadway (between 73rd and 74th Streets.) It also has a location at 808 Columbus Avenue (99th Street.)
Uptown Artisanal, a pop-up market featuring small local businesses, has returned to 2878 Broadway on the corner of W. 112th Street after a three-year hiatus. The temporary market, run in partnership with Columbia University, will be open on February 12th from 10 am to 5 pm. The group of retailers being showcased in the space (which used to be Liberty House) include: Blondie’s Divine Desserts, Hamlin Apothecary, and Hashbags, among others.
M.M. Lafleur, a women’s clothing store, plans to open on March 24th at 182A Columbus Avenue (at 69th Street) in the space formerly occupied by another clothing store, Rag & Bone, which closed in January. M.M. Lafleur specializes in casual everyday clothing and casual work clothing, the project manager told West Side Rag. The company has two other stores in Manhattan: one on the Upper East Side and one in Bryant Park.
Well that BBB has been low on stock for a long time so wondered how much. Longer it would survive. Everything is moving online _ all depressing
Bed, Bath and Beyond is a great resource to the neighborhood. I don’t go there too often but it is nice to have, especially for newcomers. That is also a huge space and I don’t know what will fill it.
My hope is an indie film theater.
Yes, a large space, BUT almost entirely underground. So, it won’t be too much of an empty eyesore.
BBBY
Goodbuy and we hardly knew ye… I just said good bye & wished luck to one employee at Harmon’s and two at Marshall’s, now this, & couple months ago the shoe warehouse… do I have to wear black everyday for the rest of my days?
Maybe it’d be simpler just to list the names of businesses that AREN’T about to close?
Very sad for all concerned…
As a note, Sephora has a 3rd UWS location, 808 Columbus Ave (at roughly 99th St, although Columbus does not have cross streets from 97th St until 100th St).
Thanks, added.
Sadly, this is sort of like how everything is moving from network TV to streaming. People no longer want to go to a store to shop they do it online. I’m very upset about Bed, Bath & Beyond closing, though I have seen it coming. The store has been half empty with merchandise for over a year now. When I asked they told me it was to give customers more room to walk around. Sorry, but making more money by having more items would never come before giving the customer more space to walk around. It was a great store and I loved going in there. And such a huge space too, 3 levels. I have a feeling it will stay empty for a long time. Has anything moved into the 62nd street Best Buy yet?
I am worried about the trend we are seeing on UWS — it started with Lowe’s and Century 21 then Best Buy, DSW, now Bed Bath. How can we reinvent those spaces so we don’t become a ghost town up here? Too many store vacancies…
Don’t forget Gracious Home and Barnes & Noble
You forgot Gracious Homes. That was the real beginning, and long before COVID and inflation, they still couldn’t find a tenant.
Gracious Homes is doing well enough with their new smaller store on UES.
As with many other retail GH simply was too large and faced various issues with rise of online. Their housewares and hardware sections faced competition from Home Depot and Lowes.
Hi Ruth: we ARE a ghost town on the UWS. It’s not the fault of online shoppers, the UES is buzzing with stores and shoppers. Remember Gracious Home? We can barely buy a light bulb up here now. And forget going out at night, the streets are dark and only wandering homeless and hostile panhandlers are walking around. Avoid 72nd/Broadway on up to 79th. The streets are filthy; too many useless fruit stands and trash Fairway who decided it’s a good place for bottle machines-hence broken glass rats roaches etc. Whoever wanted to kill this neighborhood -it worked .
Your description sounds eerie, reminiscent of Griffin Dunne’s film “After Hours,” which took place downtown at night. I haven’t been out walking after sunset since the beginning of the pandemic, though I used to walk from Zabar’s, after buying their evening specials, a mile south. I didn’t realize, though, that things were so bad: is it too dark because the city/neighborhood is forgoing lighting? If so, should 311 be called? I
Things aren’t that bad. This is a crazy exaggeration. I go out at night all the time in the area, and it’s still filled with families, people walking dogs, people out for a stroll, etc.
And don’t forget RATS.
Good point about reinventing. Retail is tough now, with so many doing online shopping. Maybe some sort of entertainment venue?
Agree with both comments…yes, very sorry to see all the retail stores, especially Best Buy and BBB closing too. As far as an entertainment venue, wishful thinking…the Lincoln Plaza Theater’s space still remain unoccupied so many years later.
Losing one store after the other is depressing. It also has us paying premium prices to live in a neighborhood that has fewer and fewer amenities.
It is very depressing and I agree completely about the high rents in correlation to the dwindling services and amenities.
Laytner’s is closed and now BBB….so to buy a towel, only Target and Macy’s….
Unbelievable.
Lost without Laytners and Century…the best for linens towels,bath mats, sheets Target and Macy’s meh!
We still have Homegoods on Columbus Ave and 99! A Burlington also opened in that shopping district next to TJ Maxx and Whole Foods.
I got wonderful towels at Pottery Barn last time they had a sale.
I walked up the east side of Broadway between 63rd and 71st last night and it was easier to count the places that were open rather than the empty or soon to be empty spaces: Bed Bath & Beyond, the former Brooks Brothers (turning into a real estate agency), Century 21, Banana Republic, Gracious Home (still empty after all these years), Lowe’s, now Sapphire is closed — it’s a long empty stretch with a lot of empty retail space. All of those spaces are large. Who’s going to fill them?
You forgot Best Buy.
Amidst the real estate/retail doom and gloom, a shout out to Pappardella ! Always loved this place – simple, consistent, tasty fare. Great value and service.
Congratulazioni !!!
Davvero! With all the pretentious (and usually short-lived) “dining concepts” and “curated eating spaces” opening around town, it’s lovely to have a dependable neighborhood restaurant where the food is good, the hospitality warm an the vibe comfortable. Here’s to the “old lady” and her face lift. Tutto va bene!
(A different Steven) My wife and I ate at Pappardella on our first date 34 years ago.
Oh well. When I was a kid in Brooklyn we spent half the weekend just running around buying stuff like soap and clothes and writing paper and anything else we needed. Now I have all that time back by shopping online.
Hoping Barnes & Noble can survive
In a few months, Barnes and Noble will open a new store on 86th and Lexington.
Sorry to be pedantic but the new store is opening on third avenue and 87th street.
Barnes and Noble is doing well under the stewardship of James Daunt, of London based Daunt Books.
Oh, dear, so now BB&B is closing. What will I do with my roughly 732 20% off coupons? 😢
I can’t see how M M Leur will stick around with prices they are charging, i.e. $75 for a tee shirt.
There are a lot of professional women on the UWS who are back working in the office and need a post Covid professional but comfortable wardrobe. MM Lafleur is perfect for us.. I am sure they will thrive here.
This is SO DEPRESSING!!!A lot of people still want to go to brick & mortar stores!!!!!! BBB is huge loss; Best Buy, (now you have to go to the East Side for every computer glitch which is such a pain!!)-DSW, North Face, on and on. I don’t understand. Shopping in person with a friend–or alone–used to be FUN! No wonder so many people are lonely and depressed, doing everything on-line. Human contact matters. A lot. Maybe something could replace Fairway, an overpriced dump with nasty employees and crazy high prices. SO many empty stores, terrible rent–I’m glad I am not as young as I used to be. I miss the world.
I loved it for the odds and ends, especially when I first moved here a few years ago. It’s too bad these stores struggle to keep going.
Papparedella is delicious and beautiful but usually a long wait to get a table, which is a testament to its allure. However, 40 years old is NOT an old lady! Lol not in Manhattan, anyway!
No question that the UWS has a plethora of large empty retail spaces. But the closing of Bed Bath and Beyond is not specific to our local situation. The company has been in deep trouble for a long time and was talking about bankruptcy several months ago. According to the NYT, they are planning a public stock offering, backed by Hudson Bay Capital Management, as a way to raise more than $1 billion. Meanwhile they are closing 87 stores in the tri-state area, including the one on Broadway.
One has to ask why so much new construction on the UWS seems to include exactly the kind of sprawling retail spaces that are emptying out. What are the developers thinking?
Developers build what zoning requires, that explains all the vacant ground floor retail in new buildings.
Would be far better to change zoning to allow say community space which covers a range of options. On UES at 80th and Second a new pre-school is opening in ground floor space.
OTOH large retail spaces can work in some instances. Lester’s on UES got the boot and is being replaced by a swimming school for youngsters.
https://nypost.com/2022/12/23/goldfish-swim-school-to-dive-into-former-ues-lesters-space/
https://eastsidefeed.com/shopping/lesters-closing-upper-east-side-location-after-30-years/
They are thinking about the large sums of money they would receive from chain stores and banks. Exactly the types of businesses the spaces are built for. Those chickens are coming home to roost now. At the expense of the community.
Pappardella does not serve Tuscan food. It serves Americanized Italian-ish standards with no regional focus whatsoever. That’s not to say it’s bad. I actually like the place, but let’s not call the restaurant something it isn’t. Glad they’re polishing up the terrazzo floor.
Amid all the closings… why do all these $4 raw-cookie places and $4 drip-coffee places survive?
Same question for all the Italian restaurants that serve meals you can quickly make at home with two ingredients (box o’pasta and jar o’sauce).
Does anyone have any idea where the new Mermaid Inn UWS will be? I heard they signed a lease somewhere near the museum.