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andrewlevineon New York's vanishing shops and storefronts: 'It's not Amazon, it's rent'

I'm still skeptical (tell me what I'm missing) - are commercial real estate prices in NYC really going up 10% / year?

Certainly as a residential renter for ~12 years (in the same areas that have high vacancies) I haven't seen a rent increase like that.

andrewlevineon New York's vanishing shops and storefronts: 'It's not Amazon, it's rent'

I found another interesting article on this question: https://citylimits.org/2017/12/05/diagnosing-nycs-vacant-sto...

The additional reasons they give:

  * increasing prevalence of chain stores who move slower on real estate deals
  * willingness of national chains to pay high rents and lose money on a store 
    in a famous neighborhood to boost their brand reputation
  * landlords "warehousing" properties, waiting for rezoning or new development
  * rezoning causing an oversupply of commercial property in an area
  * unrealistic expectations of landlords who have not adjusted to lower
    rents caused by online competition
  * sunk-cost fallacy - for properties bought in 2014-2015, landlords could
    face "losing" money by renting for less than their mortgage
  * increased prevalence of "demolition clauses" in leases - that allow
    for eviction of tenants if the landlord wants to demolish the building -
    making it harder to find a tenant

andrewlevineon New York's vanishing shops and storefronts: 'It's not Amazon, it's rent'

Can anyone explain the economics of being a NYC landlord and keeping a property vacant for months or years?

I've experienced this in several different neighborhoods I've lived in, but it's worst in my current neighborhood (Upper West Side).

This article gives some high-level reasons (institutional investors more willing to wait for higher rent, banks devaluing non-chain properties, real estate bubble). But it's hard for me to imagine the math works out for leaving a space vacant in NYC for years.