BY DENNIS LYNCH | With an assist from City Hall, Nike opened the doors of its flagship Niketown store at 529 Broadway on Fri., Nov. 18. A crowd of excited sneakerheads and streetwear junkies who had gathered under the giant Nike “Swoosh” logo above its front door eagerly streamed into the place. Around 200 people had congregated in front of the store, spilling out into a bus lane on Broadway, before they were finally let in.
Nike has since put up barricades on Spring St. to corral the crowds, but they take up half the sidewalk outside the store. Some locals who accused Nike’s landlords of skirting city zoning laws to build the megastore, called the scene on the sidewalk unacceptable and said that if the owners had followed the proper channels, they likely wouldn’t have such a disruptive crowd issue.
“I think the key point is that if they had gone through the required zoning, we wouldn’t be dealing with this crisis,” outgoing Community Board 2 Chairperson Tobi Bergman said. “They would’ve been able to build retail on the first floor and the basement, in exchange for not having retail above — instead of a five-story retail store. That’s the probably outcome of a special-permit application.”
The community board has not met to discuss the crowd issue, but fought vigorously to hold the Department of Buildings accountable for allowing what C.B. 2 called improper and illegal construction. But the department said the building is legal and the owners of 529 Broadway went through all legally required channels during permitting and construction.
Bergman, neighbors and local politicians rallied outside D.O.B.’s Broadway office earlier this month, a day before Niketown’s planned Veterans Day grand opening. The next day, D.O.B. rescinded Nike’s temporary permit that would have allowed the store to open — although an agency spokesperson said that action had nothing to do with the rally.
The opponents accused the city of failing to enforce certain rules during the construction of 529 Broadway and, in the words of Councilmember Margaret Chin, putting “the interests of a global corporation over the safety of pedestrians forced to navigate congested sidewalks and those looking to protect the historic character of one of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods.”
They also said the site’s owners both used loopholes and broke laws to build their five-story building and avoid community review. The owners essentially tore down the entire existing building there to build their new building, but did so on a permit allowing for a major alteration instead of a full demolition.
The developers technically played by the rules by leaving the bare minimum of the old structure — two “party walls” they claimed were shared with neighboring buildings — to qualify the job as an alteration instead of a demolition, and therefore avoid triggering the required community board review. The owner of one of those neighboring buildings, however, wrote a letter to C.B. 2, stating they, in fact, did not share a party wall. Yet, construction continued anyway.
Last week, D.O.B. stamped Nike a temporary certificate of occupancy that expires in February. D.O.B. issues T.C.O.’s when the applicants have resolved all life-safety issues, but still have to tie off minor loose ends. In the case of 529 Broadway, inspectors still need to sign off on electrical and plumbing, for example, according to D.O.B.
The five-story Nike store includes a basketball court, treadmills to try out running shoes and a 350-square-foot “Made by Nike” studio where you can custom design your own shoes and have Nike employees build them on site.
As for how often the store will hold events, a Nike spokesperson said they have not yet released a calendar of events.
Following the megastore’s opening, Chin said, “I am incredibly disappointed by the Department of Buildings’ decision to clear the way for this out-of-scale retailer to open its doors — a decision that was made over numerous objections by my office, Borough President Brewer’s office, Community Board 2 and residents of this neighborhood.
“Now that this store is open, Nike must work with the community to ensure that the sidewalk along this busy corridor remains clear,” Chin said. “The continued proliferation of large-scale retail must not be allowed to destroy the historic character of this iconic neighborhood. I join my fellow elected officials and community members to continue to push D.O.B. to enforce the law and to do its job to protect the people of this city.”
The local business improvement district, the Soho Broadway Initiative, did not take a position favoring either Niketown or the group of electeds and residents who came out against the apparel giant. Instead, the BID worked with Nike to create a plan to minimize sidewalk impact. The BID’s executive director said he is happy with what he has seen so far since Nike started an organized sidewalk queue.
“I think what they’ve done over the last couple days, starting on Saturday, has proven to be effective — pedestrian flows were maintained, access to buildings was maintained,” Mark Dicus said. “There wasn’t a really big crowd, so the test will be when they do have a significant amount of people waiting to get in, that’ll be a test. From what I’ve seen, [the sidewalk pen] has the ability to expand and contract and if they don’t need it, they can take it entirely away so the sidewalk is completely open.”
