For nearly a century, New York City’s Garment District has extended from 35th to 40th Streets, between 7th and 9th Avenues. In 1987, the Special Garment Center District (SGCD) zoning was written to “dedicate an area where apparel sales, design, supply and production functions could cluster together without having to worry about encroachment by traditional office uses.” This little section of New York City is the heart of New York’s multi-billion dollar fashion industry and houses over 200 small factories employing over 4,000 people.

The SGCD Zoning is described by Garment Industry Development Corporation in Spring 2007:

In essence, the zoning prohibits landlords in the SGCD from converting apparel production space to office space. Landlords can convert only if they set aside an equivalent amount of production space aside elsewhere in the SGCD. While well-intentioned, the zoning is not strong enough to ensure that existing demand for apparel production space is met, much less to dampen the SGCD rental market.

• The SGCD zoning does not control rent levels.

• Landlords are not required to rent their space only to factories. The zoning allows over 150 uses, of which apparel production, wholesaling and showrooms are only three.

• The SGCD zoning was not enforced for 12 years, leading to a fair amount of illegal conversion to traditional office space. At least 800,000 sf have been illegally converted.

• As a result of the Hudson Yards rezoning in January 2005, only 14 buildings between 8th and 9th Avenues are still governed by the SGCD zoning. Residential use has been permitted in the remaining buildings between 8th and 9th for over a year. Construction on several residential projects is already underway.

Recent rezoning and lack of enforcement has threatened to destroy the fabric of the community that has formed in the Garment Center. Production facilities are being chased out by skyrocketing rents and two-thirds of protected production space could be lost by rezoning.

Splintering the community could and is wrecking havoc on the what makes the garment center work. Designers are escaping the high rents and lack of production space by running in droves out to Long Island City, New Jersey and even half way across the country leaving many of the buildings housing high priced law firms, or being demolished for the new “Times Square South” hotels.

Though zoning requires landlords to make a certain amount of production space available to apparel related businesses, landlords are purposely inflating rents beyond the means of the production facilities to force them out. Then they proceed to ask the city to rezone the area because they have empty space.

Anna Jane Grossman, NY Sun, wrote last year:

“You need some apparel production and suppliers here to keep the ecosystem of the garment district,” the head of the fashion-retail office at the city’s Economic Development Corp., Patrick Murphy, said.

In recent years, rising Midtown rents and inexpensive overseas labor have compromised this delicate balance. Local garment manufacturing has been steadily shrinking, despite city zoning that puts certain limitations on how many residential and non-garment businesses landlords can allow on the neighborhood’s side streets.

“This is an area where people used to always be well-dressed,” Mr. Fiandaca said. “There were always expensive dress racks going down the street.” Today, however, you’re more likely to find hot dog vendors and cheap bolts of rayon.

For more information visit:
http://www.savethegarmentcenter.com/
http://www.gidc.org/

About the author

Kevin Michael Reed
Kevin Michael Reed (Google+, Facebook) is a fashion & beauty photographer and producer/director based in New York City and Los Angeles, CA. He is the President/CEO of RedFOG Visual Media, a production company in New York City, and a partner in Passion of Photography, Inc, a company dedicated to teaching photographers and sharing our passion through charitable causes. Kevin has lectured and hosted workshops throughout the United States and the world teaching photographers the business and creative sides of photography. (Kevin's Fashion & Beauty Photography Portfolio can be seen here).