Photo by Joy Bergmann.
It’s been years since Loehmann’s closed its store in the Ansonia building at 2101 Broadway between 73rd and 74th Street, but this week there’s been lots of activity there.
Photo by Suzanne.
Our sources, and permits posted there point to three new tenants for the Ansonia building.
A new Mount Sinai Doctors’ office is opening on the second floor, a spokesperson tells us. “Mount Sinai Doctors will be opening a primary care and dermatology practice on the second floor of the Ansonia building at Broadway and 73rd Street in February 2018. The practices will be moving from their current site at 425 West 59th Street, and is in line with our plan to expand primary care and specialty services into the neighborhoods we serve.”
A Sephora is also set to open in the building, according to two workers and a permit at the site. (Update: Sephora says it will open in the fall, replacing a store a couple of blocks north.)
There’s “some” big box store coming too, according to workers there. Years ago we had heard the rumor that it would be a Saks store, though the company never confirmed it. Then on Tuesday one worker told our tipster Suzanne that it would be Wal-Mart.
Wal-whaaaa?
If true, that would be jaw-dropping because Wal-Mart has so far been shut out of New York City.
But the plot twists don’t end there. When we went to investigate, a worker told West Side Rag that it would be Target. Tar-jhay! That would also be a big deal.
Sadly, neither company responded to requests for comment. But do send us a tip if you hear of any more news there. This could be a big one.
Photo by Suzanne.
With reporting by Joy Bergmann.
Target on the UWS. OMG!! It would be like caramel brownies with Emack & Bolio’s Moose Tracks on top!!!
Disgusting
AGREED
Why?
figures…way to go everyone!
my money is on a store that sells only mustard
no, pickles.
Yeah, competition for Jacob’s and the related Maison.
Fits in with the decline of the uws a la marshalls and related obscenities
Walmart on the Upper West Side would be an act of war.
Re: “Walmart on the Upper West Side would be an act of war.”
Ooooooh, sorry “Spence” that Walmart doesn’t fit your personal image of the UWS as a place of disposable income and gentrification…perhaps you have us confused with the much “fawncier” Upper East Side?
Truth is, aside from its anti-union policies, Walmart offers a huge assortment of AFFORDABLE brand-name merchandise to people of limited means…of which there are many living on the UWS.
Sure it may not fit your mental image of this place, BUT:
1. No one is forcing you to shop there; and
2. you can shield your eyes as you walk past.
Aside from the fact that Walmart will not be opening on the UWS, it’s important to understand a little about their low prices. Because they pay their employees an “unlivable wage” with no benefits, they’re able to sell crap for very low prices. But it turns out that since their employees earn so little they’re eligible for Food Stamps, Medicaid, and other important safety net programs. People who have never shopped or set foot inside a Walmart pick up the slack when our taxes are used to subsidize those wages. Walmart also treats their suppliers like crap in that they dictate what they will pay for the goods they buy. They’re the biggest retailer and they use this to support a “take it or leave it” policy with their suppliers. Always look for the “real cost” of the crap you’re buying, it’s way more than you realize.
Yes, yes, and yes. This is exactly correct. I was about to bring up these exact same points.
If people knew more about what Walmart was up to they wouldn’t be so supportive. Well, maybe they would be if they just can’t resist the crazy low prices on crappy low quality Chinese merchandise.
Target, on the contrary, is somewhat respectable corporate citizen and I wouldn’t be upset at all to have one around the neighborhood.
The goal of a Walmart in a community is to reduce everyone in the community to the state of destitution that compels them to shop at Walmart.
I really don’t see them coughing up $15/hr., though. They prefer to pay wages so low that they are effectively subsidized by social services.
ScooterStan showing his ignorance…yet again Get a life, dude. Your shtick is way old.
Walmart can’t be so inept to pick the UWS as it’s first foray into Manhattan. Unless it’s a plot to divert protestor attention away from Trump.
I wouldn’t mind a Target, though.
Yes, it’s a plot to divert from Trump. A Russian plot. Illuminati too.
Just out of curiosity, why don’t you live in a gated community in a Red State?? I think you would be so much happier.
I’m not saying this as a put-down or something. You seem to be so unhappy and even angry to be living here. It makes ME sad. Maybe a family member works here and you don’t have a choice or something along those lines. I don’t know.
I don’t know what to tell you except to try to make the best of it. People all over the world would do anything to live in the Big Apple. Truly the greatest city in the world!!
It would be great if a Wal Mart finally opened in NYC.
It would be a victory for economic common sense and a defeat of liberal sanctimony and hypocrisy.
It might even juice the stock a bit.
Am I bad Upper West Sider if I’m not totally opposed to a Target or Walmart in the neighborhood?
Probably. Oh well.
Yes Kate you are. Well no not really, it’s complex and complex does not translate well in comments section. I would say all these things are not bad or good they are just different and slowly change the fabric of the neighborhood. And if these shops CVS, Walgreen, Starbucks etc are successful then it is what the neighborhood wants. I never go to these shops because i prefer a non standard lifestyle consuming experience. But this area has seen such an influx of wealth over the last 25 years or so no wonder there is this influx of corporate, standardization, and chains. It is only “natural,” and sadly the way the city is trending.
You’re one of the few commenting here who has common sense! Sorry too many UWS folks seem to think this is still 1990 or something with nothing but mom and pop stores.
The world changes people. If it offends, don’t shop there. As someone else said, not everyone on UWS can afford to shop at whatever the places are that you perceive as proper for UWS.
This is so gross.
and the mall-ificatioon of the uws marches on!
There really is no satisfying the UWS kvetchers… They complain about empty storefronts and when something goes in those storefronts, they complain about what goes in them.
You folks need a new hobby.
Well said, Jay.
A new hobby?
Like kvetching about kvetchers?
Maybe it’s different people expressing differing viewpoints?
Please don’t lump everyone together.
I’m not opposed to Wal-Mart on economic grounds (although their labor practices are appalling) but that chains like this dilute local character. It’s likely this space will be occupied by a massive national chain of the likes you can find in any strip mall in the US. With every box store that opens, the qualities that make our neighborhoods unique get that much more diluted, and we become a more suburban city. I live in NY precisely because it’s NOT the suburbs. Despite some efforts to promote local business, we’re still seeing more of these big chains open in spaces once occupied by more local businesses than we are the other way around. Yes, I’ve appreciated having places like Trader Joe’s in the area, but I’d forgo them for the sake of solid locally owned services that offer quality and don’t rip off consumers. This is not a new trend, nor one limited to NYC, but it makes me sad that the economic forces make a big generic box store the only option for a space like this one.
There are still plenty of ‘local’ stores on the UWS. National chain stores proliferate because UWSers shop there. If you would prefer locals go shop in soho or the UES, then I can’t say I see the point in that.
Let’s not forget that this would be replacing a Loehmann’s, a big box chain retailer…
Well said, and I couldn’t agree more, Sally.
You all need to take a step back and re-evaluate your life. It would be gross?? Who says that? Spoiled people say that. There are a lot of working families that are on the UWS that would benefit not paying $10 for 1 roll of toilet paper.
And Walmart is the only answer to that?
Lauren, I agree with you, but you’re points fall on deaf “pink protest hat” ears.
Sephora? They already have 2 stores in the neighborhood. One is on Broadway between 76th and 77th, and the other is in the Time Warner building (barely UWS to some, because you will need to reapply your makeup after travelling there and back).
But seriously, what our neighborhood really needs is an everyday full service type of supermarket, like a Stop and Shop or Shoprite. In some areas of our country, both Wal-Mart and Target have real supermarkets inside them. We need reasonable prices for national brand items. Do Fairway, Trader Joe, or Whole Foods have real sales (10% off on ribs at Fairway is not really a sale, in my opinion)…
We pay so much more for housing, utilities, transportation, child care, etc, and the chain drug stores think they’re doing us a favor by charging inflated prices for household goods, that we deserve reasonable prices.
Is anyone against saving money? Speak out !
So interesting that Walmart employs more people in the United States, and creates more jobs, THAN ANY OTHER COMPANY. Yet people still complain. Here is a company that employs thousands of people and helps hundreds of thousands more on fixed income purchase the things they need, yet the ultra privileged UWSiders still whine and whine.
Exactly, Jason. The constant refrain is how terribly WalMart treats its employees. Yet how many people who say this even know any WalMart employees? I know people who work at WalMart and they have great things to say about the company. It’s no surprise that when a new WalMart opens, they often get thousands of applications. Many city residents would benefit if a WalMart opened in the city, but the snobs on the City Council think they know better than their constituents and instead want to stop them from opening here.
As for WalMart employing many people, that’s very true, and you and I think that’s a good thing. But it seems a lot of UWSers prefer people to be on welfare than working and supporting themselves.
Walmart treats its employees miserably, and
intentionally prices its merchandise in such
a way as to ensure that all other nearby stores
go out of business. It’s a horrible, evil company.
I certainly don’t want it in my neighborhood and
would never shop there if it were to open here.
Having said that, though, I don’t think that the Loehmann’s site is large enough for a Walmart.
I do agree with Stuart that we desperately need a
supermarket ever since Food Emporium at 68 St.
closed, but I doubt one would open one block south
of Fairway and one north of Trader Joe’s. As for
Sephora, I was told by a Sephora employee that
when they open the larger store in the
Antonia, the current location at 76th will close.
I’ve only been to a Target store once in the Midwest and it seemed like a larger version of Woolworth’s. Isn’t it a one-stop shopping kind of place? What’s the problem with having it in the neighborhood when it’s obvious that the old mom ‘n pop stores are never coming back?
I so miss the wonderful stores owned and operated by families. Wish the UWS was not only big chain stores.
You know, watching the USPS,FEDEX,UPS delivery trucks double parked on the upper crust motorways, seems like a lot of nimby’s already subscribe to walmart and targets…the horror😱
At 75, I probably have a longer–and possibly more accurate?–UWS memory than some of the commenters below. E.g., when the only Gristede’s in the nabe was a dinky little grocery store near 85th & Bway; when there was a small so-called Daitch Dairy (later swallowed by Daitch-Shopwell–>Garden Market–>Food Emporium) near 86th; when many preferred Murray’s Sturgeon Shop to Zabar’s–which, in its original incarnation, wasn’t much bigger! I even remember being yanked into an Irish saloon on the corner of 89th & Amst by my mom one afternoon when she’d picked me up from first grade at PS 166–now the Richard Rodgers School of Arts & Technology. (No, she wasn’t a drinker–a horse en route back from CPW to the Claremont Stables had bolted and thrown its rider at the curb.) There were butcher shops, barber shops, somwhere on Amsterdam in the 70s, a mom-and-pop Italian deli that made its own pasta sheets, a Whelan’s drugstore on 84th & Bway, the stellar never-to-be forgotten Tip Toe Inn on 86th (where the young Jeff Chandler was once a cashier–and the waiters didn’t say, “Take the soup!”).
I could go on and on, but a lot of you guys have no idea what you REALLY missed, so gimme a break, willya, and cut the clueless complaints!
There was another Daitch Shopwell on the east side of Broadway between 76th and 77th well into the mid-1980s when I moved into the neighborhhod. Now THAT was a supermarket !
What a great comment!!!
I hope you post more often. I really enjoyed reading that. You are my kind of lady, Sue.
These big box stores don’t just arbitrarily set up shop hoping for the best. They spend a lot of time and money performing due diligence. If they indeed move in here, it’s because the demand is present despite your loathing. You and I may not care to shop there, but apparently our neighbors just might! I don’t look down my nose at anyone who might shop at Target or Walmart. It’s much more powerful for me to take my hard earned dollars elsewhere and hope that everyone else might too. We the consumers are who determine who moves into the neighborhood.
Hope it is Walmart or Target. Not everyone on the UWS has money. This would help many.
Target has opened mini-stores, with a limited amount of merchandise and some grocery items. One of these took over the space formerly occupied by a Barnes & Noble in Forest Hills. It’s not obtrusive and has a selection of their own brands of housewares & some clothing and people in the area seem to like it. No parking lot or building though which would be an issue for any big box store in that area of Broadway.
Wal-Mart might use the space for a Jet.com concept, since they are testing it out at Story, a shop in Chelsea.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/10/wal-marts-jet-com-tests-fresh-grocery-concept-in-new-york.html
Looks like a few Target stores are coming to our lovely borough. Here is the list from the corporate site:
https://corporate.target.com/about/shopping-experience/upcoming-store-openings
Wouldn’t THE CONTAINER STORE be a great addition to the Upper West Side?
Not low-end or tacky, they reach a moderate to high-end customer demographic, it’s very well run, superbly friendly customer service driven – containing affordable, stylish merchandise.
And that’s very needed here on the UWS.
Stop stressing and visit MedAesthetique at 165 West End Avenue where all the Feline’s best staff is. Marta, Joanna, Lucyna, Magdalena, Dolores, Lana, Ada all of the most amazing girls are serving the upper west side community for the past 2 decades!
If Target is the tenant, some issues and likely consequences:
More delivery trucks servicing the store and impacting street congestion
It is a “destination” store so more people (not to mention their Uber’s) in area and subway.
Could impact on Fairway and/or West Side Market. Things will not be pretty if only Trader Joe’s left to buy food.
More garbage/trash.
Fairway has been going downhill for years due to their own awful business decisions, well-documented elsewhere. If they go belly up, it is nobody’s fault but their own.
It is true that the private equity firm that purchased Fairway has not done a great job.
Nonetheless many people shop there, depend on it as a food market resource.
Trader Joe’s is already mobbed.
People need to be able to shop for food in the neighborhood.
Is the pool from the old baths still in the basement?
No, the pool was taken out before Tower Records moved in there in the early 90’s
No No No These big box stores do NOT belong in NYC, and if you think that they do, then you don’t belong here either! Before the Giuliani administration, chain stores were not allowed in NYC unless the chain started in NYC! Yes, there were a few exceptions, but by not allowing those stores to open here, NYC had real individual flavor with Mom & Pop stores and restaurants! Rents were affordable and so was the merchandise. Tourists came here for the experience of a city that offered different foods, services and products then they could get at home, and there were less empty store fronts then there are now! For whatever reason this made little, insecure Rudy uncomfortable, so he opened the flood gates to the large corporations and the long standing individuality of NY was squeezed out! It’s just sad.
Will be so amazing to have a wallmart in the neighborhood. I can’t wait!
If you can’t spell it you can’t shop there.
Just briefly, there’s no space on Bway for a Wal-Mart or Target. That’s a silly rumor. West End Avenue (in the 60’s) far more appropriate. We deserve a Target, we’d appreciate a price break on everything that Target shoppers get: their pharmacy and generics are the best etc. Would really appreciate that store here.