‘Too many negatives at the moment’: Hudson Yards has few good options to fill Neiman Marcus’ now-vacant storefront

Modern Retail – July 29, 2020

Less than two years into the opening of Hudson Yards, one of the most expensive real estate projects in the country, the development’s shopping center is losing its anchor tenant.

Last week, Neiman Marcus, which filed for bankruptcy in May, announced that it would be closing its Hudson Yards store, among other locations. “A physical location in Hudson Yards is no longer an ideal space for us given the preponderance of restaurants and future office space in that mall,” a Neiman Marcus spokesperson told CNBC, which first broke the news.

Ken Morris, managing partner at Cambridge Retail Advisors said that another risk if Hudson Yards moves forward with turning the former Neiman Marcus space into an office, is that those office workers may not come in as often as they would have been before the coronavirus, if companies continue to allow workers to work more remotely. That could in turn, result in retail tenants not getting as much foot traffic from those offices as they previously would have.

“A number of my clients have said, ‘we are not sure if we are ever going back to the way it was,’ Morris said. “We are going to need to get together again in an office at some point, but do we need to be there five days a week?”

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