Photograph: POTENTIAL SUPERSTORE? An abandoned factory in Port Morris. Photo Credit: Hijiri Inose.
By Kenneth Aaron, Staff Reporter
A recent proposal to entice warehouse stores and mega-retailers into abandoned industrial districts along the borough's southern shore has convinced many that change is on its way. Whether for better or for worse, though, depends on whom you ask.
Irate small-business owners forecast that they will be eaten alive by superstores, while city officials and real estate developers promise that they will bring new jobs and shoppers to forgotten regions.
The proposal, announced by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Feb. 18, would permit stores as large as 200,000 square feet in areas previously zoned as light and medium industrial sites. Currently, only stores under 10,000 square feet are permitted in those areas without variances.
In the area south of the Bronx Terminal Market sits First Rapids Furniture, alone in a neighborhood plastered with `Factory For Rent' signs. But if its new neighbors are going to be low-priced discounters, the store's manager, Demetrius Alexander, said he'd rather be alone.
"You're fishing with your pole; they're fishing with a dragnet," said Alexander, talking about the drawing power of giant retailers.
Other neighborhood storekeepers are also hearing footsteps. "It's outrageous," said Rudy Balakhan, manager of Lumber Headquarters, a lumber yard in the heart of the rezoning district. "We cannot get the same response from the suppliers because we buy smaller quantities."
Balakhan said that his 10-unit chain has already shut down four Long Island stores because of pressure from a four-year-old Home Depot in East Meadow.
A spokesman said that Borough President Fernando Ferrer thinks the plan will be beneficial as long as it is confined to the borough's deserted manufacturing areas, so it would not compete too heavily with local businesses.
News of the change brought enthusiastic response from at least one supermarket chain, Pathmark, which has two stores in the borough and is looking to build more.
"Obviously, we welcome the opportunity for retail-friendly zones," said Stan Sorkin, vice president of public affairs.
Superstores like Wal-Mart, BJ's Wholesale Club and Home Depot have experienced phenomenal growth over the past few years as no-frills shopping increasingly appealed to price-conscious consumers.
The Department of Planning says city residents spend over $3 billion annually at out-of-town superstores -- and estimates that half that sum could be recaptured if the proposed zoning changes were passed.
The zoning law was designed in 1974 to help preserve the city's shrinking manufacturing spaces. As manufacturing here has all but died, however, Giuliani is anxious to fill the vacancies.
"This is an untapped market with incredible demographics," said Steven B. Greenberg, president of the Hewlett, L.I.-based Greenberg Group, real estate advisers to leading retailers. He minimized fears that small businesses would be hurt, saying that better stores meant more business for everybody.
For all the argument, recent history suggests that the introduction of superstores may bring no change at all.
A 320,000-square-foot Caldor at 2501 Grand Concourse raised hopes of a retail bonanza for local storekeepers when it opened in October 1993. They hoped to capitalize on an influx of new customers; so far, though, it has been business as usual.
"Zero effect," said Adam Wild, manager of the Florsheim Stratford Shoe Shop, which stares straight into the colossal store. "Hasn't been good; hasn't been bad."
Douglas Chang, owner of Shipman Concourse, a stationery shop a few blocks down from Caldor, offered a reason why his bottom line hasn't changed.
Pointing to a smattering of notebooks, Chang said, "I carry 30 different types. They carry three. So the customers come here."
But in the rezoning area, retailers still worry. Despite acknowledging that the changes may be good for the city, Alexander couldn't help but wish that his future were more secure.
"If we could find a happy medium," he said, "that would be OK."
