Editor’s note: The MTA is ready to make a deal on vacant retail space

I am a shopper at Turnstyle, the underground retail corridor connected to the Columbus Circle subway station and owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. This unique space has a variety of food vendors and specialty shops. It even once had a bar, which has been shuttered for quite some time along with several other stores. The vacancies are a sign of how difficult it has been for the MTA to rent out these retail spaces across the transit system, many of which closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The iconic Record Mart in the Times Square station, for me, was one of the biggest losses resulting from COVID-19. 

These vacant spaces, as Crain’s reported, exacerbate the uneasiness straphangers have about being safe in the subways. More than 80% of former retail spaces are vacant, according to Crain’s. The agency, however, is showing that it’s willing to make a deal to get these spaces filled. At Turnstyle, a retro toys vendor moved from a cart he operated in the middle of the corridor the past two years into a storefront. The owner of Tommy’s Figz said with his two-year track record, he was able to negotiate a deal with favorable terms on the space. 

Following up with the MTA, a spokesperson said the agency was engaged in “creative programs and an aggressive marketing campaign to promote retail spaces in the subway system.” That also includes using these empty spaces for art installations. That’s a wonderful alternative, at least until more retailers realize that the MTA is ready to make a deal to bring back business underground.