It Begins… Entire NYC Mall Closes Over Theft

we're talking about the Fon Center in lower Manhattan there's a mall inside the operator says crime has gotten so bad there they are breaking the lease and closing down shops but the MTA says now so fast so this here is one of the newest malls in New York City it opened just 10 years ago cost over a billion dollars to build but now it's closing because of crime from smashing grabs to mobs of Thieves retail theft is rampant the shops are supposed to be part of fton Center's appeal but Something's Happened most of the shops are gone shoplifters are unafraid when they come to the stores they feel it's their right to take whatever they want it's a beautiful place but it could be a little more well kept homelessness is part of the reason that Westfield the mall operator wants out I guess the homelessness you can become an issue at a certain point because of how like mental health is kicking him when we catch someone shoplifting and we call the police it's a very slow response and it's very difficult to detain someone because we don't want to have an altercation at the store dmta is is the landlord here its leaders told us they have confidence in the NYPD to deal with a crime and they want Westfield to stay [Music] put so this billion dooll facility is about to turn into an abandon symbol of Urban Decay and there's actually a SWAT team walking into the building right now but what nobody's talking about is that if this facility isn't safe no business in the area is safe because the city owns this place they control the police and if they can't keep the criminals out of here your business doesn't stand a chance either and once this place shuts down it could have massive ramifications not just for the immediate neighborhood but for the entire city but before we get into what the closure of this state-of-the-art facility means and the real reasons why it's actually happening it's important to understand that not only is allowing out of control crime a bad decision on the part of the city building this facility may have been a massive mistake from the very beginning and it may have been doomed from the onset which means it never should have been put here but apparently the city thinks it's possible to save what's left of this place which is why the police are now on site but as you can see from all the empty businesses it might not [Music] matter Metro Transit Authority in New York City is suing mul giant Westfield after the company stopped all operations at the Fon Center in lower Manhattan Westfield saying it's because of crime and quality of life concerns so as you can see from the barriers and the stores that are closed the operator of this mall Westfield a National Mall operator has shut down and is ending their operation here and most of the kiosks are closed you'd expect these places to be open right now that's actually an eviction notice right there hogendas got kicked out find me another hogendas where they get evicted for not paying rent and if you look up here the entire upstairs is not being leased look at this all this space nothing going on and worst of all on the other side of these ropes look at that the bathrooms they are shut down that's how you know a place is closing when there's no bathroom but it's not just out- ofc control crime that's causing this place to shut down the operator also alleges that the city was a total slum Lord and although the operator has a 20year lease with this facility they're trying to pull out ahead of schedule and the whole construction of this place was a disaster from the GetGo and it was sadly finished 11 years behind schedule and the operator asked for a rent reduction in court because the building wasn't delivered as promised and believe it or not they won a $13 million judgment against the city and continued to operate but that was 2018 and since then things have gotten a lot worse the shops are supposed to be part of Fulton Center's appeal retail upstairs a Transit Hub that Services eight Subway lines down below but some things happened most of the shops are gone some now F so as you can see the city's crime wave problems are kind of magnified by what's going on in here and that's because this is a major Transportation Hub and not only is crime a big problem down here in the subway it's an even bigger problem for them all because they're not able to rent their stores and if they can't rent their kiosks because nobody feels comfortable operating them it means the company Westfield that operates this place isn't going to make enough money to pay their bills with the city who's their landlord and you'd think with all the foot traffic here somebody would want these places but look they're all empty except for one and the Sho shine guy is open God bless them but as you're about to see the design of this building is why it has such a crime problem and it's pretty surprising that nobody realized this before building this place it's a beautiful place but it could be a little more well kept homelessness is part of the reason that Westfield the mall operator wants out it's leaders say crime is also a big issue so much so that some shop owners aren't renewing leases others breaking them early I guess the so this is a beautiful building but there's a lot of what almost seems like unnecessary open space maybe that's just the way Transit centers are designed but it's actually more than that with this building you've got 1 2 3 four and five exits all here at street level and that basically limits the businesses that can be here to just food because if you're selling physical products in a city where there's a massive shoplifting problem anyone who steals something can escape right there and that might be why a lot of these places are boarded up and even this one that has a kitchen you can see they've got the art pieces in here I mean it looks good for an empty storefront but it's still an empty storefront and another big problem is that because there's a Subway terminal in here that means that this place has to be a 24/7 facility and it's the busiest train station in lower Manhattan and what that means is even though you have private businesses in here the place is always open it's never closed and folks are in here after hours on top of that Subway crime has exploded in recent weeks so much so that the National Guard has been deployed at several subway stations including this one making the standout feature of this place that it is a Transportation Hub the reason there's so much crime in here these businesses can't operate and when you combine that with New York's soft on crime policies you've got a recipe for disaster which is exactly what we're [Music] witnessing on Wednesday we saw homeless Advocates near the turn Styles the MTA is a landlord here its leaders told us they have confidence in the NYPD to deal with a crime and they want Westfield to so as you can see you've got a lot of trains flowing right through the center of this facility this is the entrance eight of the trains are here the other two are down the hall and the subway trains they're the Wild Card feature that was either going to make this place or break this place and we already know how this has turned out but in a perfectly crime-free City with no problems in the Subway or on the streets the foot traffic from all these train lines would be an asset to all of these businesses but the crime is so bad we've got the National Guard patrolling certain Subways we've got police all over the place there's a big surge right now trying to bring it under control not to mention there's a lot of crime going on in the actual terminals on the actual trains and instead of paying foot traffic flowing from the subway to the businesses that are here you have a situation where crime comes out of there and gets in here and when you look at headlines like this that are taking place in the subway how is a business going to operate in this kind of environment and if the environment's not pleas people aren't going to come in here and eat lunch which is why these restaurants are all in the process of shutting down and this is what happens when the only foot traffic you attract is negative foot traffic in a perfect world things would be different but given the current lay of the land I don't think what we're watching here is surprising and now we're in a situation where the landlord is essentially overcharging for the market value of this space businesses are closed because they're not able to operate and make any money therefore the person renting it isn't able to pay their rent on time the whole thing's a disaster they're going to have to cancel the lease that's what every business does when they can't make the rent they say we're going to cancel we're going to pull out we're going to shut down but crimes made it difficult for this place to turn a profit so the transit system is suing the lawsuit filed in federal court last month says that the agency will face irreparable injury if Westfield abandons the Fulton Center saying that hurts the MTA retail operators and the public the lawsuit includes a letter so yes a city with businesses shutting down that does hurt the general public but you know what else hurts the City crime and I'm not trying to defend the billion dollar Mega Corporation Westfield that operates this place yes they're filthy rich but like any business they got into a situation expecting a premisis that was fully complete on day one that would be safe and free from crime so that they could rent out the other spaces for a set amount of money which isn't happening and that's why they're pulling out but what's fascinating and what nobody's talking about is that down the street Westfield owns another mall but the one big difference is that although the city manages this facility they have nothing to do with the other one that doesn't have any of these problems Westfield also operates the mall inside the Oculus which is another Transit Hub the MTA also tells us in the wake of 911 Fulton Center was a centerpiece of Redevelopment in lower Manhattan so interesting thing about the Oculus it's also a shopping center and it connects to the same trains that go to the Falon Center and because they're connected it's very strange that this place looks totally different from that place especially when you consider that the same tenant is renting out this place as well but before we uncover why these two places have VAR different Futures ahead of them it's important to understand that although the MTA says the Fon Center is a piece of New York City's 911 Redevelopment history this place is the exact same thing to a much greater extent just look at the interior it's incredible and the outside of it kind of looks like a skeleton for some reason and the Oculus is actually across the street from the 911 memorial that's where all of these people are heading we're right next to the Freedom Tower and this building also serves as a Transit hub for traffic from New Jersey and here's where things get interesting the designer of this facility is actually the Westfield who is also the mall tenant and not only did they have a hand in designing the mall portion of this facility they were renting the prior facility since back in 1975 which means this place was specifically designed to make money and it also includes some design choices that make it basically impossible for Crime to occur here like it does down the street even though it's connected to the exact same subway station so these doors right here behind me these are the first big difference between how the subway works at this station and the Fon Center and even though these two stations are connected this one does not have the same feel to it as the Fulton Center does I'll explain what I mean on one end of the station you've got the number one train and then all the way at the other end you've got the r and the W and then you can connect to the Fon Center itself and this is essentially a much more isolated location than the Fon Center which lets you off kind of right in the middle of downtown steps from Wall Street and believe it or not that few block difference makes a big difference people don't have the same reason to come here as they do the Fon Center on top of that all the little kiosks here are open and flourishing I don't remember seeing a piano at the Fulton Center you can see how something like this would be a magnet for shoplifters if we weren't in a secure area but you don't have mass crime being committed across from the Apple Store and the Apple Store here is the bot bot level and the top level so it's two floors this is not the kind of place that could exist across the street and this is also one of the few New York City Transit locations where you've got New Jersey traffic which makes this an interstate Transit Hub and that means the way that it is policed has nothing to do with the New York City Police Department which is also somewhat of a crime deterrent in its own right so the police force responsible for this facility is the Port Authority police not the New York City Police now it's not that one is better than the other but they do have different budgets right now the NYPD has a lot of Staffing shortages last year there were some budget cuts that negatively affected how well they're able to do their jobs but the Port Authority police operate in New York and in New Jersey and they do not get their funding from the city which means if the city has budget problems it doesn't affect them in fact even though this facility is in New York and connects to the New York subway it is not owned by New York City it's owned by the Port Authority so the landlord is different which is why even though the tenants the same they're having a very different experience here and what most people don't know is that the Port Authority police department is actually pretty big they've got about 2,000 officers and their job is to oversee Transportation infrastructure that traverses New Jersey and New York and even though they have to obey the same laws as the New York City Police and their arrest process is not any different the leadership is different and many people blame the city's leadership for a lot of the crime problems that are happening so you've got different foot traffic all together along with a mix of tourists and an entirely different police force that handles this facility a police force without funding problems or budget cuts plus this place was designed by the tenant who ended up renting it which is why they signed a 99-year lease on this facility and although there are some empty storefronts these are in a very out of the way part of the station over by the New Jersey trains but all of the spots in the center of the facility by the impressive View and the windows these are pretty much all least out which is a lot different than the Fon Center where you see empty storefronts immediately after walking in and whereas the nyp PD tends to shift its resources around to where the greatest need is because they're under staffed the Port Authority police they're always here and what's also interesting is that since this place was designed by the group who was going to rent it and use it to make money a lot of what you see in here feels happier friendlier and much more inviting almost as if it was designed to succeed from the very beginning with a very specific purpose in mind do you notice how everything here is white and it's well lit and it just seems like a happy environment well that's because this place was designed as a shopping mall and and not a subway station and these luxury Brands aren't trying to put their business in a Subway terminal in fact if this place didn't look and feel luxurious it wouldn't be able to attract this type of tenant in the first place and that's because while at the Fon Center the goal is to force Subway traffic from the center of the building through the exits here Subway traffic is relegated to the sides of the facility and you have to go out of your way to get to the subway if you're already inside here so at one place the subway is in the way and part of the problem but here it's out of sight out of mind and those big glass doors that you have dividing them allall from the subway even though they're never closed they have a lot to do with why it feels so separate and this also has a major effect on crime if that's where your Escape is how are you going to shoplift from a store at the opposite end of this place look you've got the up escalator and the set of stairs but you don't have 10 escalators all right next to each other like you do at the Fon Center you just have this one way up one way down and that's because malls are designed to trap you inside so you spend as much money as possible at the Fon Center they want to move you from where you get off the train to the street as quickly as possible the design accomplishes that but it's not well suited to leasing out or having luxury Brands inside and if you want to get up here to where the street is and you're down here where the walkway is inside the store you're going to have to go all the way around and find an exit and look at this exit no escalators just a set of nice looking marble steps and then when you finally do get to the top there's another escalator and another set of steps and there's police and what that basically means is if you're going to try and steal something think getting out of here is going to be an absolute nightmare because the building is designed to keep you inside as long as possible but what's fascinating is that these two places were both built right around the same time and they ended up being so different once they were completed and even though obviously one is working out way better than the other the city and building the Fulton Center probably didn't predict that crime would rise to the levels that it's at now and become totally uncontrollable but even though the Fulton Center's closure could lead to increased theft and shoplifting at the stores that surround it that crime spillover may not occur here to the same degree at all and that's why it makes it look like the Fulton Center's design from the get C was just a bad idea the design itself doesn't attract high value tenants which means every commercial space inside the Fon Center was never going to get the same dollar amount that the commercial spaces here inside the Oculus were eventually going to get apple will pay millions for a store but they're not going to pay thousands of dollars for a store save a whole bunch of money and then be proud of themselves no they want the best store they can get and that store is here not over there and when the fon was designed it wasn't made by the developer who was then going to turn around and Lease the place out no they hired an architect to make something that looked impressive and it does look impressive I'm not hating on the design it's very beautiful but it's not really functioning as an incom producing asset for the city it's just a Transit Hub and if the city is broke and they want to make Transit hubs maybe they shouldn't make them look like art pieces for billions of dollars that then can't be rented out to future tenants and what we essentially wind up with at the Fon Center is a facility that costs a ton of money to maintain and doesn't earn that same amount of money back making its existence unsustainable and if you look at most Subway terminals they are just a hole in the ground that leads to the train we're not exactly talking about luxury real estate down here which almost makes it look like the city had zero business building a luxury real estate asset and that's what the Fulton Center is but the city's running it the same way they run their other property which looks like this and is covered with peeling paint just look at the tile in here man the subway is in rough shape and that's why it looks like the Fon Center was doomed from the very beginning when it was decided that it was going to be built as something other than an access point for the subway which essentially means that its standout design feature direct access to the subway is also the reason that it's shutting down but will it shut down contribute to More Store closures and more crime in the immediate area now that it's gone and now that criminals need a new Target let me know what you think thanks for watching I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Cash Jordan

Views: 3,705,620

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Id: IRiHBs62jfE

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 24 2024