Official discusses economic state of downtown Manhattan

Many businesses in downtown Manhattan are reporting a steady recovery from the pandemic.

Downtown Manhattan executive director Gina Scroggs spoke to the city commission Tuesday about the results of their annual business survey.

She says the results show many downtown businesses are recovering from the pandemic.

Scroggs says some businesses are actually experiencing financial success like never before.

The district has also seen a net gain of 12 new businesses over the past year, which Scroggs says is about average.

She says a better show of the area’s health is the number of renovations that took place.

Despite these signs that downtown Manhattan is doing well, the area as a whole is experiencing issues with job vacancies.

Scroggs explains:

Scroggs provides an example of how these issues are impacting one particular store:

She says Downtown Manhattan did see a decrease in occupancy, likely due to an increase in inventory and office space.

One area Scroggs is watching out for is the number of jobs moving to a remote setting.

She says several some businesses went remote during the pandemic and that a few will maintain the virtual model in some capacity.