New York may slowly be waking up to the reality of the garment manufacturing business in the city — or rather, the lack thereof.
The city and major stakeholders in the Garment District appear to be revisiting, yet again, the possibility of rezoning the area. As previously reported in WWD, the zoning debate has raged for years, as the city has tried to protect the manufacturing industry while landlords and economic development officials have continued to point to underused space and the migration of manufacturing overseas. Because of the incendiary political nature of the issue — labor groups pitted against landlords, economic development associations pitted against politicos — the city has been loathe to change the special zoning preservation laws in the district, which were initially put in place in 1987 to keep the manufacturing industry in the city.
The controversy surrounding the law, now two decades old, was fanned again last week after City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden announced at a forum that the city hopes to have a proposal to address changing the zoning law within one month.
“We are currently in discussions with stakeholders about what the precise plans are,” said Rachaele Raynoff, a spokeswoman for the Department of City Planning. “We are looking to create a healthy Garment District going forward by supporting both production and garment-related uses as well as other emerging businesses to reinvent the buildings and make it a more attractive place to work.”
The plans, nebulous as they may be, may indicate a slight shift in the city’s treatment of the district. As recently as 2005, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was allocating public funds to educate and train apparel workers.
The mayor’s office did not respond to calls for comment.
The preservation laws dictate that no existing manufacturing space within the district will be converted to other commercial uses such as office space or apartments, unless they are being adapted to showrooms, warehouses and other uses for apparel industry businesses. If a landlord converts space in one building, it must replace it in another location within the area. The special Garment Center District lies west of Broadway to Ninth Avenue, between 36th and 40th streets, in Manhattan. It is within the Fashion Center Business Improvement District.
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Most industry observers consider any sort of new plan long overdue. According to the FCBID, nearly 9 million square feet of space in the Garment District is designated manufacturing space, but only approximately 500,000 square feet are actually being used as such.
“I hope we’ve finally reached a moment in time where there’s an acknowledgement from the city and from the unions that the preservation laws aren’t as relevant now as they were in the past,” said Barbara Randall, executive director of FCBID. “Right now there’s not a lot of space for small businesses and nonprofits in New York. These spaces are perfectly suited for architects, graphic designers, galleries, off-Broadway theaters and other entrepreneurs that can’t pay the rents at the high-end office buildings.”