Reconstruction Harms Fulton St. Retailers

A financial district retail strip is about to take a big hit: A huge reconstruction project will close large portions of Fulton Street to traffic for the next two years.

Checkered with discount clothing stores, watch shops, and empty storefronts along its narrow roadway, Fulton Street is already struggling compared with other streets in the area, which have gradually been rebounding since 2001. A few blocks south, Wall Street, with its larger residential population, has already attracted higher-rent, luxury retailers such as Tiffany's and BMW.

Retail experts say the reconstruction, which involves replacing a 150-year-old water main, and its accompanying traffic closures, which start this month, are sure to slow business in the area. Add in the construction of the already over-budget Fulton Street Transit Center, an $888 million subway station project scheduled for completion in 2009, and the coming years could see a rise in the number of empty storefronts.

"It's a flat-out negative, absolutely," a senior vice president at real estate firm RKF, Karen Bellantoni, said. "The last time there was a project of this kind was on Columbus Avenue in the '80s. It basically put everyone out of business and it took 10 years to get the street back."

However, Fulton Street benefits from having a greater proportion of pedestrian traffic, Ms. Bellantoni noted, which could lessen the negative effects of the street closure.

Once reconstruction is complete, planners envision the strip serving as a connector between the South Street Seaport and the World Trade Center, capturing both lucrative tourist traffic and financial workers.

"We see Fulton Street as a major gateway," the director of planning at Community Board 1, Michael Levine, said. "Yes, it's a two-year project, yes, it's an inconvenience, but at the end of the road, we will see an improved Fulton Street." Seeking to ameliorate the effects of the reconstruction, the city and state are proposing a program that dispenses grants to downtown business owners affected by street closures. The city is also developing a program aimed giving storeowners an incentive to upgrade their building's façades, officials said.