There were fewer retail spaces available for rent in 2023 compared to 2022 on both the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, according to data obtained by NY1.

Two neighborhoods known to attract families, they are also ones that bring business, said Ariel Schuster, a vice chairman at Newmark, a commercial real estate company.

“With the shift of work from home, we’ve seen a lot of companies actually focus on residential areas like the Upper East and Upper West Side,” he said.  

On East 82nd Street, between Second and Third avenues, Sebastian Laws is hard at work. His business, Sutton Clocks, has been on the Upper East Side for more than 60 years. His dad started it and he has continued.

“People know they need their clock fixed so they’ll look for us,” he said.

He said the keys for the business’ success are doing their best, keeping their customers happy and having a rent they can afford. That has meant the Upper East Side.

“People will come in from upstate. People will that actually used to live in the city and then moved. They still will come back and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in the city. Can you come check on the clock again?’” he said.  

Business has not only been good for him, but for many others in the neighborhood, with empty storefronts disappearing.

Data from Newmark shows the number of storefronts available for rent from East 59th Street to East 96th Street from Second to Lexington avenues fell 18% from mid-2022 to 2023.  

There are pockets of vacant storefronts, even surprisingly down by Bloomingdale’s, which is at the southern end of the neighborhood. Many of the large spaces around the iconic store right now sit empty. But could change be coming?

“We just leased a very large space on the southwest corner of 59th [Street] and [Lexington Avenue],” Schuster said.

Over on Madison Avenue, William Greenberg Junior Desserts may be known for the black and white cookies, but the surrounding vacancies are more in the gray, said Carol Becker, who owns the business.

“There are two stores on this block that rented really quickly, like within a month or two they were rented. So there are places that are coming in,” she said.

The Upper West Side has also seen storefront availability drop, about 15% from mid-2022 to 2023, according to Newmark data.

“I’m an Upper West Sider, so I can speak from personal experience. You see a lot less vacancy than in the past years,” Schuster said.

On West 92nd Street and Columbus Avenue is one of those new businesses, The Pet Market.

“It was kind of a great place to test the waters and possibly plant some roots down in the area,” said Emannuel Dawson, who works at the store.

He said his bosses picked the Upper West Side to open their store because of the veterinarians and dog parks in the area.

“It does seem like a lot more of these vacant retail spots are being like kind of repurposed,” he said. 

One business that has not changed is Thomas Drugs, which has been a staple on the Upper West Side for more than 100 years.

“It’s an antique ceiling,” said owner Khaja Khateb, pointing at the ceiling that he said is original from the early 1900s.

But Khateb said since COVID-19, his business has been tougher.

“I myself think the majority of the customers went online during the COVID,” he said.

His rent is lower as a long-time tenant, so he said he is just fine.

Back on the Upper East Side, Laws recently renewed his lease.

“We fix clocks that are 200 years old,” Laws said. “And 200 years from now, that same clock will be able to be repaired again.”

And to him, that will make sure his little nook, where it’s impossible to lose track of time, can stand the test of it.