Hudson Yards: $20B investment misses the mark.
New York City undeniably serves as America's fashion capital, yet the region’s largest investment in fashion retail in recent years—Hudson Yards—continues to stifle diversity and offers not even a morsel of progress for the already antiquated industry.
From its inconvenient location to the antiquated anchor stores, the development lives as a monument to 20th-century fashion conventions. $20 billion was spent erecting the project with an estimated $4 billion provided through public funding. Of its 18 million plus square feet, Hudson Yards will offer retailers less than 1/10 of the space. But for all of its failing, perhaps the most pronounced shortcomings are the brands it subsidizes.
According to our study, only 8% of the apparel stores in Hudson Yards were founded in the past decade. Although the mall provides a new home to legacy brands like Louis Vuitton and Coach and offers the contemporary Lululemon as well, it doesn't drive innovation. More importantly, it further emphasizes why big brands do not need public investment. Louis Vuitton, Coach, and Lululemon are publicly traded and have access to global investors if they need to capitalize an additional retail expansion into New York City.
Meanwhile, New York City graduates thousands of students from its various fashion colleges who could use this same money to provide brick and mortar stores for experimental projects. Small designers are rarely granted the large amounts of capital needed to scale innovation, and year after year creatively infringed upon by global fashion brands. When will this bullying be reprimanded? Specifically for New York City, it is funny how the fashion industry is one of the largest in the city but receives so little legislative attention and foundational support for small business ventures.
To round out Hudson Yards, we’ve seen the drastic decline of indoor shopping centers for over the past decade. So why spend billions of dollars to create the same model? Is this not the definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results? It’s frustrating to see substantial dollars that have the potential to revolutionize consumer culture in the western hemisphere go to waste.
Especially, when there are fresher models in place that could have been replicated in the Hudson Yards space. For example, Canal Street Market and Chelsea Market both offer innovative environments surrounding retail and food. Canal Street Market is “a carefully curated retail market, food hall & community space open year-round that merges retail, food, art, and culture. Canal Street Market highlights top retail and design concepts, restaurants, and up-and-coming players in the downtown New York City community.”
Just a few blocks downtown, Chelsea Market’s business model supports a constant influx of traffic. From Chelsea Music Hall’s concerts to numerous innovative restaurants and pop-ups - Chelsea Market is a go-to destination for newness. In comparison, Hudson Yards provides nothing new and presents a culture of sub-par access to the public with high barriers of entry.