Retail startups like Allbirds, Everlane, and more are flocking to one of NYC's trendiest neighborhoods to open stores - here's how big the trend has become
To track rents and study real estate trends in different parts of NYC, CBRE divides the city into neighborhoods, and then divides each neighborhood into different corridors.
In SoHo, there are three main corridors CBRE looks at: Prince Street...
...Spring Street...
...and Broadway.
Though those are the main corridors where CBRE tracks rents, Director of Research & Analysis Nicole LaRusso told Business Insider that there are other important areas for retail, like Wooster Street. There were quite a few retail spaces for lease on that block.
SoHo has a pretty big range of stores, including fast fashion retailers like H&M, more high-end stores like Burberry, and a growing number of startups.
A lot of the startups opening in the area spill over to nearby neighborhoods like NoHo and Nolita, like Casper and Everlane.
Everlane, which opened its first physical store in January, first opened as a pop-up shop before opening its permanent shop at 28 Prince Street.
Allbirds is another example of a retailer that started exclusively online, opened a temporary storefront in SoHo shortly after, and eventually opened a permanent flagship store on Spring Street.
Being in the SoHo neighborhood makes our brand experience accessible to New Yorkers, and also to visitors from around the country and the world," Allbirds told Business Insider. "Our first SoHo store was a concept store —it was meant as a learning opportunity for us and a way to interact with customers in our largest market."
A big reason that so many retail startups are opening up shop in SoHo is the amount of open store fronts and low rent prices. There were "space for rent" spots on almost every block.
According to data from CBRE, rents having been dropping consistently in the area since early 2016, making it more affordable for smaller brands.
LaRusso also explained that SoHo tends to attract the sophisticated and thoughtful millennials that many of these startups are targeting. There's a range of customers that come to the area because of the range of types of stores, from fast fashion retailers to more high-end boutiques.
There are still a lot of vacancies in the area...
...but it's filling up fast. CBRE data shows that SoHo has eight e-commerce startups that have opened up storefronts, Nolita has four, and NoHo has one. But some of the stores might close after the holidays, LaRusso said.
While its uncertain whether this trend will continue in SoHo, CBRE explained to Business Insider that other neighborhoods like the Flatiron district and Union Square may start seeing something similar.
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