By Gus Saltonstall
One of the Upper West Side’s largest vacant storefronts is getting a new tenant.
Marshalls, the popular discount department store, closed its Upper West Side location at 2182 Broadway on the corner of West 78th Street in March 2023. The expansive commercial space has sat empty since.
A new tenant is now on the way, though, as Crunch Fitness signed a lease in the third quarter of 2026 for the 28,000-square-foot storefront, according to CBRE’s Manhattan Market Report, a global commercial real estate service.
The Upper West Side deal was the third-largest commercial lease signing in Manhattan from July through September of this year.
CBRE’s report does not indicate when Crunch Fitness is expecting to open the new location, but West Side Rag reached out to the gym to find out more. There is already a neighborhood Crunch Fitness at 162 West 83rd Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus.
At the time of closure, a store clerk at Marshalls told WSR that the lease had come to an end and the company had decided not to renew.
The Rag will update this story as we learn more.
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Glad to hear that a business will take this vacant space.
I never understand why owners of buildings allow commercial space to sit empty for three years or more. Why don’t they set the rent so as to attract a commercial tenant? Are they simply waiting for a desired rent level and supposing that their reduced income will help them reduce their tax obligations? Does the holder of their mortgage demand a minimum rent level for any new lease? Some other reason?
It is an urban myth that empty storefronts provide some kind of economic or tax benefit to the owners. The city collects property taxes no matter what and will not reduce them for vacancy, which means there is already a vacancy tax.
The main reason this was vacant so long is likely because it’s really hard to find good commercial tenants willing to take on long term leases, and especially for such a huge storefront.
Hi – very likely they own other properties and use the “empty” one to harvest losses.
I’ve wondered this as well.And if the reduced income help reduce tax obligations, there should be a vacant property tax that is levied after a period of time to discourage that.
I remember when there were several different and diverse businesses here. It’s a shame when redevelopment happens, we lose so much of the community.
Wish it was still New Town pizza!
Wish it was still Marshalls!
OMG. Wow. Yes
Yes!! That was, hands down, the best pizza in the neighborhood.
Perfect location for me! If they are offering a new store discount, I may join
Basement level is a great place for a gym. I wish them well.
I am happy that a business is occupying the space and I hope it is successful. I’m not optimistic about the future of the other one nearby, so we might be losing a business as well.
This is not my ideal tenant but it could be a lot worse and I am glad it is something. Not everything is for my pleasure.
Good luck!
The UWS is getting saturated with physical fitness places, cannabis dispensing stores and nail salons. They are mostly on short term leases and are not financially viable if the economy has a downturn they will fold. The UWS need a more diverse group of businesses. Landlords of commercial space should realize that the good old days are gone and look for solid commercial tenant at much lower rents.
Bottom line the R.E market is not healthy.
If only those darn landlords would think of you and be willing to rent at a loss to attract the types of businesses that would make you happy. While we’re at it, restaurants should make what you want and give it to you for free!
The surviving neighborhood stores are Amazon-proof. A workout, a manicure and a joint are three things you can’t get on Amazon. That’s why we have so many gyms, veterinarians, nail salons, dispensaries, physical therapists, coffee shops, banks, barber shops, pharmacies etc…all stuff you do in person.
The UWS is far from saturated with gyms. The NYSC above the old H&H closed. Crunch will move from 83rd to a bigger space on 78th. Why complain?
The upper west side is definitely not saturated with gyms. I am super excited that we will be getting a couple of lower priced gyms in the area– preferably ones that don’t force you to work with personal trainers or take classes. I just want to use the equipment and be left alone!
How do you know that these businesses are mostly on short-term leases? Care so share your source on that?
I have done some cvetching about all the cannabis businesses. Then it occurred to me that there’s a liquor store every block or two all up Broadway. So it may make sense to have just as many cannabis businesses, even if I don’t patronize them.
Kvetching with a K
They are not on short-term leases. That person has no idea what they’re talking about.
How to say you smoke pot without saying you smoke pot…. 🤣
Why? Before this, There was Duane Reade every other freaking block. if the market doesn’t want it, the business will close.
Or if people can get the same things online with the touch of button and have them delivered in a day or two, why bother with bricks and mortar stores?
Can’t argue with what you say. I fear that “needs” and “should” look toward changes that are extremely hard to make happen.
Why do gyms bother you? Other businesses can fold in a bad economy. It’s a membership business so there will be steady revenue. What do you want the store to be? Some retailer who sells things at higher prices than you can buy on Amazon? Don’t go if you don’t want to work out. I just don’t know what it means for the other location.
bookstore!
Yeah, they are close together. still the retail landscape used to be so diverse
It has been crazy for years and years, but the pandemic really accelerated things and there are a lot of trends that haven’t diverged.
What are you talking about with fitness places? I don’t see too many new ones. And they require a pretty major buildout so are not likely to come and go.
Having our neighbors be fit is also a noble goal. I could think of a lot worse things.
What type of stores would you prefer? Particularly in this age of Amazon deliveries, so a lot of items traditionally sold in stores are no longer viable.
I heard we are getting a Wegmans on the Upper West side?
They are apparently trying to “offload” that lease.
That deals dead.
Not technically. But it certainly doesn’t look good.
After Marshall’s left this location I was at their other store in Chelsea and recognized the checkout man as someone who had helped me in the past at the Broadway store. I asked him why they had closed on the Upper West Side. He said the Broadway location had real structural and leakage problems from the building, so much that management decided to leave.
The contemporaneous article I read about the store closing said the same thing.
It would be great to have real stores occupying the UWS…..remember Price Wise? Marshalls? Pandemonium? West Side Kids? just to name a few interesting stores …. but the .the best was Woolworths!!!! Yeah, quite a ways back, but they built the wonderfulness of the UWS!
Blame the Internet.
Woolworth’s! The only place on the UWS where you could buy a can opener, a pair of flip-flops, a crochet hook and a pair of live goldfish!
Years ago, a comic had a variation on that, mentioning a cheeseburger, tube socks, and a parakeet
Yes, Woolworth’s! It was on the north-east corner of 79th street and Broadway and completely wonderful, with such a wide range of affordable products. It also had an ice cream soda bar with old-fashioned stools, a photo booth, and goldfish which always died almost immediately after purchase. There was a huge Food City supermarket on the uptown corner of the block. It had a great fruit section, run by a man named Al. I miss it all. SO much.
Businesses are shifting to ones that offer an experience you can’t get online. A gym follows this theory. As do nail places and the others mentioned. Also harder to shop lift. This is a large space so there probably weren’t tons of candidates. Though it could have become an Amazon staging area allowing the car lanes to free up which would help relieve traffic congestion but that would hurt “the war on cars” so this is better. Amazon certainly has the money for rent. There could be bathrooms, break rooms, vending , storage etc.
Well good. One down more to go. NE corner of Broadway and 106th former DR drug store. Probably going on 5 years. Price just can’t be right. Oh well. I guess if we’ve finally got the Metro (Uptown Cinema) on its way there’s always reason to be hopeful
Huge former Duane Reade on the Northwest corner of 75th & Columbus has been vacant for what seems like 10 years. Seems that space is crying out for a tenant.
This is the block that uniquely has no trees, and no tree surrounds, as if a treeless block was the plan when the block was redone some years back. It’s a bare unfriendly, unshaded concrete strerch. I asked at Gale Brewers office why and they said they’d look into it but I never heard back.
You didn’t hear from her office? You don’t say…
It would have been a great place for an Aldi’s.
However, another terrific place for that super saver market would be where Bed, Bath and Beyond’s Face Values was located on Broadway around W. 90.
ps wait!!! It was on the SOUTH east corner of 79th, I’m terrible with such things.
Nope. You were right the first time. Woolworth was on the NE corner, where P.C. Richards is now.
So disappointing . The UWS is filled with empty stores waiting and waiting for new exciting and USEFUL commercial ventures. Why not Best Buy or Target or Ulta or a decent Trader Joe. How about a Century 21 or a Home Depot someplace we can actually use. A general merchandise store like Bed Bath&Beyond …someplace to shop instead of constantly going across town to east side.
Because, for the most part, people can now get all those things online – so why bother with a bricks and mortar store? BBB closed most of its stores in the U.S. because the Internet had made it untenable to maintain so many huge stores with high rents. Most of the blame for your grievance can be placed on the Internet.
Our streetscape is now very boring – everything is now a SERVICE instead of a STORE. Literally no one is excited to head out and spend the day browsing at the teeth-whitening salon…or the nail salon…or the dermabrasion salon…or the lip-inflation salon…or shopping ’til they drop at the gym or the yoga studio or urgent care. When was the last time that a storefront sat empty – and then later you walked by and a funky (and FUN) dusty/cluttered used bookstore or junk shop or vintage clothing store had opened up – when was that?? ’73?? ’82?? The UWS – and NYC as a whole – are a shadow of what they used to be. Also – things don’t vary much from block-to-block anymore – it’s the nail salon/urgent care/dermabrasion/weed store/bank branch on EVERY block. Also – the vast majority of these extremely overpriced SERVICES (they are *not* stores) cater to females instead of males. If you think it’s boring being a woman in a sea of yoga/Pilates/lip inflation/nail salons, try being a man.
It was not to long ago West Siders were commenting they were against large chain stores like Wegman’s Marshal’s and Aldi’s. Now they asking for them. One thing for sure is you can never please UWSers with their million dollar co-op and rent stabilized. apts.
As a few people have commented, we keep getting more and more nail salons, cannabis shops, gyms and other service-oriented places, but few “stores.” And as two people noted, the reason for this is the Internet. Why bother with “brick and mortar” stores when you can get almost anything you want online and have it delivered sometimes within just a day or two? While “landlord greed” used to be THE driving force behind empty storefront syndrome (and while it still exists), the main driver of empty storefronts is the Intetnet.
That is why ~90% of all the “new” storefronts that have opened on the UWS at least since the pandemic are things one cannot get online: food (including pizza parlors, supermarkets, fast food, and “minimarts”), nail salons and spas, cannabis stores, etc.
Sadly, that is unlikely to change.
I was hoping West Side Market might bite at returning to the area…..
west side market would be great! wonderful rolls etc. We’re lost on the UWS as i already said -nothing interesting or practical or fashionable to browse. W.72nd as well as Broadway -boring wasteland. Looks like NYU medical and some banks moved in. We head over to East 86th where EVERYTHING is right there. Such a drag…,