citymeetings.nyc

Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.

Q&A

Live XYZ program for tracking vacancy rates

1:27:28

·

3 min

Video Player is loading.

Current TimeÂ 0:00

DurationÂ 3:07:13

Loaded: 0%

Stream TypeÂ LIVE

Remaining TimeÂ 3:07:13

Â

Commissioner Gross provides details on the Live XYZ program, which SBS uses to track storefront occupancy rates in New York City.

Live XYZ conducts quarterly reviews and walks of every street in NYC to assess commercial space occupancy.
The data is reflected in a technology tool accessible by over 80 city agencies.
Commissioner Gross expresses confidence in the accuracy of the Live XYZ data, noting increased trust from various stakeholders over time.
Pre-pandemic storefront vacancy citywide was approaching 11%, based on Live XYZ data from the first quarter of FY 2020.

Oswald Feliz

1:27:28

Alright.

1:27:28

And the numbers related to vacancy rates, those numbers are based on the live XYZ program slash software, correct?

1:27:36

Or are there other ways of that you've calculated those numbers?

Dynishal Gross

1:27:40

So the our insights into vacancy for the last five quarters is based on Live XYZ's work and that team actually you know they're local business and it's foot leather.

1:27:53

They do quarterly reviews, walks of every corridor in New York City, every street in New York City actually to review which commercial spaces currently the Ground Floor commercial spaces are occupied or vacant.

1:28:08

And then the insights from that you know manual work are reflected in a technology tool.

1:28:15

So a database that describes vacancy with a dashboard that can be assessed, accessed by I believe more than 80 city agencies and agencies are using this vacancy data in many ways but it also allows SBS to meet our obligation of reporting on changes in vacancy to the city council.

Oswald Feliz

1:28:35

And how accurate would you say the software is in terms of the data being by it?

1:28:41

Are we seeing any challenges with I guess accurate reporting or can if you were to rate it from a one to 10, how accurate would you say based on all the feedback you've heard or have seen?

Dynishal Gross

1:28:52

So some of our business improvement districts also you know track foot traffic in their district using technology tools and bids as part of their annual reporting to SBS, share vacancies in their districts to us and our bids also have access to the live x y z database.

1:29:15

And as as organizations within the administration and our bids have used live x y z more, I think they only have expressed increased confidence in the accuracy of the insights that we receive from the tool.

1:29:29

I'm very pleased with the service of Live XYZ to date and you know I also appreciate that they're a small based business providing local employment and they're very they've been very open to requests for adaptation and improvement in their outputs and I hope that you know all of our constituents including members of this committee will share if they have feedback about the insights that we're gaining from that work.

Oswald Feliz

1:30:00

Okay.

1:30:00

And earlier you mentioned that the citywide vacancy rate right now is 11 o four we're back we're back to pre pandemic levels.

1:30:09

What were those pre pandemic levels?

1:30:11

What was the average vacancy rate?

Dynishal Gross

1:30:13

So pre pandemic storefront vacancy citywide was approaching 11% and that is based on a live XYZ data collection from the first quarter of FY twenty.

Oswald Feliz

1:30:32

Okay, so it was about 10 ish percent more or less in that ballpark.

Dynishal Gross

1:30:36

More than 10.5.

← Previous Chapter

SBS initiatives to decrease storefront vacancies

Next Chapter →

Transition of Live XYZ from SBS to OTI and potential impacts