By Josh Rogers
Had billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg known the marketing savvy of P.S. 234 students, he might have given the normally high-scoring school an A rather than a B in the recent report cards. Students, who decorated and posted a paper “Book Sale” sign down the street from the new giant Barnes & Noble sign, will be done with their sale two weeks before the chain opens in Tribeca.
They’ll also benefit from the opening at Greenwich and Warren Sts. Tuesday night, Nov. 27. Barnes is donating 10 percent of the sales the first night to 234 and three other nearby schools – P.S. 89, P.S. 150 and I.S. 89. Carolyn Hughes, the new store’s community relations manager, said the donations will be made in books and the schools will be able to select whichever ones they want.
Opening night will be from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. and the store will open the next day for its first full day of business Nov. 28. Hughes said the Tribeca store will get the biggest Barnes events in N.Y.C. along with the Union Square and Lincoln Square locations.
Bed Bath & Beyond, which like Barnes will be on the second floor of the new residential building at 101 Warren St., is apparently working to open on “Black Friday,” one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Catherine Gentile, a Bed Bath spokesperson, said the opening day has not been decided but the store will open “late next week” and it will definitely not open on Thanksgiving.
“We are excited to be a part of the rebirth of this part of Manhattan,” she added.
With two large stores opening this week and residential construction continuing in the condo/rental building, the area will be an active construction site for a while. Whole Foods will open in a large space under Barnes and Bed perhaps as soon as next summer.
Contractors for developer Edward Minskoff hoisted about 100 pine trees to a private plaza last week. The plaza will only be open to the 227 condo owners.
Building renters in 163 apartments, including the ones living in 77 below market apartments Minskoff set aside in exchange for $15 million in Lower Manhattan Development Corporation money, will not have access to the plaza.
The Minskoff project is unusual in that some of the stores will open before residents move into the building.
Nicole LaRusso vice president of Economic Development for the Downtown Alliance, has studied the Lower Manhattan retail market and said in an interview this summer that Whole Foods was given a good deal to attract condo buyers.
“A place like Whole Foods doesn’t pay as much because they are loft leaders for the rest of the building,” she said.
LaRusso said the pattern is not likely to repeat itself because building owners see conditions improving and are holding out for higher rents. She said the median household income Downtown is $165,000, about three times the Manhattan median. In addition, high profile stores like Tiffany and Hermes have opened Downtown, so spaces will be filled, but maybe not too quickly, LaRusso added.
“Retail is always that last piece,” she said.
Josh@DowntownExpress.com
