NoMad as new “it” micro-nabe? don’t hold your breath

from the Manhattan Loft Guy ‘to do’ list
I noted this article from the Wall Street Journal when it hit the inter-tubes on October 8 (North of Madison Square Is Starting to Gel), cogitating on it, as it is a non-residential-neighborhood dear to my heart (we lived there for 13 years). I have cogitated enough to have some Thoughts (perhaps) Worth Sharing.

The premise is that the small slice of Manhattan around Madison Square is getting ready for its close-up. In journo-speak, it is

experiencing a renaissance after years of being a no-man’s land sandwiched between the Flatiron, Gramercy and Murray Hill districts.

In the style of self-interested business owner fans everywhere, the Journal quote one local restaurateur as dropping the “M word:

"Forget about a destination, NoMad is transforming into what will become the next Meatpacking District in 10 years."

loose boundaries
The article is not does not reflect anyone’s idea of the perfect model of editing, as the subject area is variously described as “the area North of Madison Square Park” (which would be 26th Street and above) and as “cover[ing] 23rd to 30th streets and Fifth to Lexington avenues”, with the main business that “came into the micro-neighborhood” and is extensively featured in the article being outside that grid (the Ace Hotel with coffee shop and tavern-style eatery, at 29th and Broadway), and the self-interested business owner quoted above dropping the “M” word owns two restaurants that are both also west of Fifth, one at 25th and Broadway, the other on 26th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. But I quibble (a bad Manhattan Loft Guy habit, yes? note to self ….)

If I were labeling the Manhattan map I would include the Ace and the Hill Country establishments, and would describe this as “a no-man’s land sandwiched between the Flatiron, Gramercy, Murray Hill and Chelsea districts”, to take into account the blocks from Fifth Avenue to Sixth Avenue, as there are more than a few restaurants, clubs and music venues between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 24th and 30th Streets that would consider themselves part of a hip renaissance (not to mention, the Museum of Sex).

a sparsely lofted micro-nabe
As I mentioned, we lived within these boundaries in a small loft coop for 13 years, and witnessed the twinkle-in-Danny-Meyer’s-eye stage of development. Our block was, in fact, a microcosm for this micro-nabe: hardly residential (only three buildings had legal residences), a very mixed and very active commercial presence (UPS trucks were ubiquitous), creative entrepreneurs renting small lofts in commercial buildings (one building seemed to have dozens of music rehearsal spaces, another had dance studios), a slew of fly-by-night businesses knocking off name brands (and occasionally raided by the NYPD), a critical mass of new restaurants, and a dollop of Olde New York (a formerly residential building said to have housed Edith Wharton back in the day, and a scuzzy commercial building we were surprised to see shut down when the top floor brothel got raided). In other words, a heavily mixed-use block.

If we take the boundaries as 23rd to 30th and Sixth Av to Park, there are probably no more than a few legal residential loft buildings, but they appear on almost every block. (There’s nothing on the Journal’s map east of Park, and I think the blocks between Park and Lex are rather different in character than the rest of the ‘micro-nabe’, which permits me to exclude the Armory blocks and Curry Hill.)

will it pack like the Meat…?
Never say never about Manhattan real estate, of course, but I don’t see NoMad resembling the Meatpacking District any time soon, and I see that as definitely A Good Thing. The Mp District developed, in part because the businesses that give it its name — because they dominated the area — fled, opening up lots of interesting spaces for re-purposing in a fairly constricted time frame. That’s not happening in NoMad (even if the rug merchant population continues to thin along Fifth and Madison Avenues).

The Mp Dis has other significant geographic advantages over NoMad, in terms of attracting that tragically hip vibe: a funky street scene (literally: lots of angled intersections that open up vistas, plus cobblestones) and the current Main Advantage of proximity to the High Line. Much as I like Manhattan loft neighborhood grit (in abundance in NoMad), there’s no comparison between the double-parked UPS trucks + ‘novelty’ shops + cheap sunglasses + “sportswear’ emporia + office buildings and the boutiques of Mp Dis. Not to mention the …  errrr … active street sidewalk retail life up and down Broadway in NoMad.

analogies break down
Much as the restaurant owners in Greater NoMad might like to create The Next Mp Dis, that is not going to happen … probably not at all, and certainly not any time soon. Teh area may well evolve into a different and funky collection of restaurants and boutiques that will attract tourists (whether from Italy, Iowa or NoLIta), but it will (always?) be anchored by the rental towers (and occasional hotel) along Sixth Avenue to teh west and the offie buildings along Madison and Park to the east, and will (for along time, at least) feature a lot of downscale retail shops, unless and until some landlords warehouse empty spaces when leases expire and create block-sized zones of newly upscale retail.

That’s the Manhattan Loft Guy vision for this micro-nabe. What’s yours?

© Sandy Mattingly 2010