Posted Apr 25, 2023, 5:05 AM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 51,900
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/n...-jewelers.html
The demise of Manhattan’s Old World jewelry industry has been predicted for years. But the 47th Street hustle has some life in it yet.
By Corey Kilgannon
April 20, 2023
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… The death of the diamond district has been foretold for years. Most diamond-cutting work has been outsourced to factories overseas. Online shopping has cut into showroom sales. The pandemic lockdown derailed supply and devastated foot traffic. Inexpensive lab-grown diamonds resembling real ones have rattled a seemingly unshakable diamond economy. Many longstanding family shops have downsized or lack succession plans. Booth vacancies in once-bustling jewelry exchanges are a common sight.
And now, the inevitable: A mega-developer has demolished more than a dozen buildings in the district to make way for two huge structures, a supertall tower and a luxury hotel. This, some old-school jewelers fear, will change the unique character of the diamond district.
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But there is another facet to this gloomy prognosis.
Right across the street from where Mr. Weitman was sweating out the perfect cut is a glittering storefront counter awash in rap star bling. The aura of the shop, TraxNYC, could not be more different from the Old World austerity of Mr. Weitman’s cutting studio.
Showcases are filled with jewel-encrusted pendants, and gold chains drip from graffitied jewelry stands tended by a young, diverse sales staff that would not look out of place at a Brooklyn dance club.
In the rear of the showroom is a staircase that leads to the V.I.P. lounge, where the unmistakable fragrance of marijuana lingers and preferred customers peruse jewelry served up by employees along with complimentary diversions: premium liquor, pre-rolled joints, a video game console.
Where past generations of diamond cutters might have hunkered down, TraxNYC has a team of 20-somethings sitting at a common table, noisily handling online and phone sales and taking custom orders started on the spot with design software and 3-D printers.
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But the old ways are not gone yet. As Midtown has been transformed by tourism, soaring commercial rents and proliferating chain stores, the diamond district seems to stand out more than ever as an anachronism.
Compared with the high-end flagship shops on Fifth Avenue — Cartier, Harry Winston, Tiffany & Company — 47th Street feels like a time warp. Makeshift synagogues and kosher eateries are wedged between jewelry office suites. On the sidewalk, Hasidic diamond dealers haggle on flip phones while groups of men smoke and banter in various languages and hawkers try to lure passers-by into showrooms.
Mr. Agadjani sneers at all that. Who needs a hawker when his Instagram posts and TikTok videos bring in millions of views a day? “We do $20 million on the daily between all of us,” he said, referring to the volume of the whole district. He has now been on the block for 18 years, and his shop does more than $30 million in annual sales.
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….. Even with all the challenges, jewelry, gems and precious metals from the diamond district are still among New York State’s most valuable exports, and the stores around 47th Street make up the largest diamond market in the country, a conduit for an estimated 90 percent of the diamonds imported into the United States. High-end pieces that end up for sale at Tiffany and Harry Winston often begin their lives here as raw material.
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