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Old Posted Oct 24, 2022, 4:55 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: New York
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jmecklenborg View Post
I stayed in a youth hostel in 2000 just off Madison Square Park in Manhattan, and most of the big buildings in the area were vacant or nearly vacant. No, they weren't bombed out, but there weren't many street-level or upper tenants, and almost no pedestrian traffic. The Flatiron Building might have been completely vacant. I remember there being a cell phone ad in the pointy storefront, which did not have a store in it, because I stood there for a half hour waiting for people to meet. That's what you had to do...before cell phones. I took a photo of the storefront while I waited, having no idea what "Sprint PCS" was.

Imagine this being pretty desolate, with grime streaking down the sides of all of the buildings:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7412...7i16384!8i8192
That area didn't have the big tech tenants it does now, but I don't know if it has ever had large scale vacancies. Pre-2008 that area was still very textiles oriented and looked more rundown than it does now, but it was still mostly occupied. The textiles companies got pushed out post-Financial Crisis as that area became the epicenter of "Silicon Alley".

The Flatiron Building probably hasn't ever been vacant except for maybe transition periods when an old tenant is moving out and a new one coming in.
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