NYC-WTC_000230712

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

THE NEW York times, Thursday, October i 8,2001 j Wide flat-screen televisions with - While Madison Avenue boutiques ! the latest in so-called plasma tech- T rx/'o! have built business by coddling cli­ : nology priced at $8,000 to J16,000 are j VUa WWICI b, ents, SoHo, with a less dense popula­ ; continuing to sell at Red Rose Music i on 74th Street, said Mark Herman. ' and rich ones at tion base — locals tend to live In huge loft spaces in low-slung buildings — I an audio-visual designer. i At Zitomer’s, an upscale pharma- that, help make the relies heavily on the bused-in hordes. On a recent afternoon, Dom, a furni­ cy on 76th Street, toy sales have increased 10 percent over this time difference. ture store specializing in moderately priced items like inflatable chairs last year. And for reasons that Karl and mirrored globes, was empty. Wong, the toy department manager, "Without the tourists," said the cannot explain, many parents start­ said that most of his regular custom­ store manager, Luigi Borrata, “it Is ed doing their Christmas toy shop­ ers lived beneath 23rd and were too totally slow." ping in September. traumatized by events to go shop­ Then there is the matter of wealth. “We’re doing really well,” echoed ping, "People are just staying closer SoHo has only recently become a Gloria Karlitz, the manager of a to home,” he said. His sales are down truly luxe shopping district with Searle clothing store on 84lh Street, about 25 percent since Sept. 11. stores like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. where customers have been snap­ Proximity to the devastation zone ping up $400 winter coats. “Maybe It attracts its share of the monied, is only part of the equation, however. but in general the stores strategical­ people feel safer on 84th Street than Madison Avenue is somewhat shel­ ly aim to appeal to a broader clien­ further downtown.” tered from economic downturns by tele than those up on Madison Ave­ Geography certainly explains, in the special nature of its customer part, why SoHo is suffering. The sil­ nue, which are quite intentionally base; rich, local and, well, very rich. practical only to those in the strato­ houettes of the giant trade center Local is critical right now as out-of- spheric income levels. Such an ul­ towers once loomed above Canal towners from Princeton to Tokyo are trarich clientele Is naturally more Street. So, their collapse radically shunning the city. No place is better immune to the stock market swings changed both the physical and psy­ equipped than Madison Avenue, with and recession fears that have tol- chic space of the area. its army of immaculately coifed lowed the trade center attack. Like the nearby neighborhoods of sales associates, to lure customers TriBeCa and Battery Park City, For example, if Jeanne Coogan back on a one-by-one basis, was worried about her long-term SoHo has been partly depopulated. ‘‘Many salespeople have been economic prospects last week, she Those who have stayed put in their working with clients for many years, wasn’t showing it as she strolled homes and businesses still have not dressing them and giving them ad­ Madison Avenue. Ms. Coogan said wiped away all the ashy fallout from she heeded the mayor’s call to save i vice," said Matthew Bauer, the pres­ the wreckage and are reconstructing ident of the Madison Avenue Busi­ the city by shopping. Since the 11th, j their lives in a way that uptown ness Improvement District, which she has bought about 40 percent neighbors have not had to do. represents 650 businesses from 61st Norman Kornbleuth, owner of the more than she usually does in a Broadway Panhandler, a popular to 85th Streets, “Because of these comparable period, she estimated, long-term relationships, our stores including treating herself to such cookware store on Broome Street, luxuries as a jeweled handbag. will be able to weather the storm,” he said. "I'm living every day like it could be my last,” she said^

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NYC-WTC_000230713