PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Barbara Blair, President of Garment District Alliance
8:45:33
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122 sec
Barbara Blair, President of the Garment District Alliance, testified in support of the City of Yes for Housing proposal. She emphasized the desperate need for additional housing in New York City and the importance of allowing more commercial-to-residential conversions to address the housing shortage. Blair highlighted how this proposal could benefit the Garment District by revitalizing the area and creating a safer, more vibrant mixed-use community.
- The Garment District is facing 20-25% vacancies in commercial buildings due to post-pandemic changes in work models and social conditions.
- Easing restrictions on commercial-to-residential conversions would activate streets, create a safer 24/7 environment, and support ground floor retail and restaurants.
- Blair recommended including capital improvements in the plan for the Garment District to fully realize the opportunities presented by this zoning change.
Barbara Blair
8:45:33
Good evening, and good evening members of the council that are with us now.
8:45:38
My name is Barbara Blair.
8:45:39
I'm the president of the garment district alliance, and I'm here to support the city of Yes for housing proposal.
8:45:46
New York City's in desperate need of additional housing, allowing more commercial to residential conversions, is an obvious important step towards addressing our crucial shortage of housing.
8:45:57
The city of Yes for housing is a lifeline for the garment district in West Midtown Manhattan because it is imperative that we find new uses to occupy vacant space in our neighborhood's commercial buildings and to create a safer 247 mixed use community.
8:46:14
Many property owners in the garment district are seeing 20 to 25 percent vacancies.
8:46:19
With post pandemic changes and work models, including working from home and reduced days in the central business district, Many tenants are not renewing leases or plan plans to downsize their spaces.
8:46:33
Others have even left the district mid lease due to dire social conditions on our streets, including drug dealing, drug use, and mentally ill individual jewels in need of services.
8:46:43
Without residents, ground floor retail is not viable in many cases because of the limited hours that office tenants keep.
8:46:51
These current conditions are untenable.
8:46:53
For the garment district, easing restrictions on commercial to residential conversions will act activate our streets and create a safer 247 environment, provide new users to absorb vacant space, increase our consumer base to support ground floor retail, expand opportunities for restaurants to operate during dinner time and on weekends, and allow for the adaptive reuse of Class B and C buildings that are threatened by both office tenants downsizing and the flight to quality.
8:47:24
For all these reasons, we're fully supportive of this proposal for the garment district to fully realize the opportunity this zoning change presents We recommend the plan include capital improvements.
