BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC
Target has just inked a deal to open its first Manhattan discount store south of Harlem at 255 Greenwich St. next year.
Developers Jack Resnick & Sons signed a lease with the Minneapolis-based retailer for a 48,242-square-foot store including 7,358 square feet on the ground floor at the site between Park Pl. and Murray St. at the nexus of Tribeca, the Civic Center and the World Trade Center complex.
Reactions from business owners, residents and students in the area were mixed.
“We have to be a little bit worried,” said Dixit Patel, who manages the Barclay Newsstand directly across the street on Greenwich St. and said the store will definitely be competition.
Yafit Goldfarb, owner of nearby jewelry shop Seasonal Whispers at 71 Murray St., was not pleased that a Target was coming across the street.
“Target is not good anywhere,” she said. “It is meant for remote cities.”
Goldfarb isn’t concerned the chain store will affect her 15-year-old business, which sells unique jewelry, but she worried for her fellow merchants.
“I guess it’s going to hurt some businesses. It’s going to hurt kids’ stores,” said Goldfarb, noting how residential and family-oriented the neighborhood has become.
Goldfarb said Tribeca already has everything it needs and Target will likely cater to those who don’t live in the neighborhood.
But to nursing students Zerina Mustajbasic and Erene Theodorakis, both 18, sitting on the steps of Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Fiterman Hall, word that a Target will be opening across the street on was welcome news.
“It’s convenient,” said Mustajbasic. “We won’t have to go so far for school supplies. Ink runs out. Pencils break.”
Theodorakis agreed.
“It’s more affordable,” she said, noting she can’t shop at the nearby Whole Foods because of its high prices.
The Target store set to open at 255 Greenwich St. in October 2016 is not to be confused the “Target Wonderland” pop-up store coming to Lower Manhattan for the holidays. The retailer announced last month plans for a “part magical toy store, part Pop Art exhibit” to open at an undisclosed location Downtown on Dec. 7.
Currently the only Target store in Manhattan is on E.117 St. in East Harlem. The nearest Targets to Lower Manhattan are in Jersey City and near Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The 48,242-square-foot Tribeca Target will be more similar to the smaller-scale urban-format store in Brooklyn than the sprawling, 136,000-square-foot Target in East Harlem, which hews to the big-box model of the retailer’s suburban outlets.
Bea McMonagle, who has lived in Tribeca for two years, said that Target moving in was a catch-22. On the one hand, she likes the convenience of the store and that it will be nearby. On the other, she worries about the big-box infiltration into Manhattan.
“You kind of feel ashamed for being happy about it,” she said.
