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Despite reports describing the Big Apple as a deserted COVID-19 wasteland, Manhattan’s population has increased since the days of pandemic shutdowns — but not in Hell’s Kitchen. 

New figures reveal the population of Hell’s Kitchen is down by as much as 10 percent since February 2018, putting it at odds with the borough as a whole, which has seen a net increase in the same period of 3.9 percent, despite plunging by up to 10.9 percent by June 2020, the depth of the pandemic.

A removal truck in Hell's Kitchen in 2020
This scene was all too common in 2020 and Hell’s Kitchen is still feeling the impact, a new report says. Photo: Phil O’Brien

According to a new report from analysts at Placer.ai, Manhattan’s growth is in contrast to all other boroughs, each of which has declined compared to February 2018. Staten Island is the worst hit, down by 7.1 percent in the period. The figures are based on cellphone location data, which the company makes anonymous and aggregates to reveal patterns of population change.

But while Manhattanites may be quick to celebrate, in at least one neighborhood there’s a gap in new arrivals: Midtown West. Placer.ai calculated the data at zip code level from November 2019, the eve of the pandemic, to October 2022.

Graphs from placer.ai showing population change in Manhattan
How Hell’s Kitchen is getting squeezed out by high growth areas. To explore an interactive graphic, go to placer.ai’s website. Graph: placer.ai

Hell’s Kitchen comprises three zip codes — 10018 to the south, 10036 in the middle and 10019 to the north. The study shows that 10036, the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, has lost a whopping 10.8 percent since the eve of the pandemic. The picture in other two zip codes is less extreme: 10018 dropped 2.8 percent, while 10019, which extends to Central Park and 5th Avenue, was up 2.2 percent. Placer.ai does not provide absolute numbers for its population estimates.

The biggest overall winner, the analytics firm said, was the Upper West Side. Its four zip codes showed an aggregate gain of 30.7 percent since November 2019. While it did not address the causes of Hell’s Kitchen’s apparent decline, the report said that the major shift in Manhattan’s population dynamics was towards significant growth beneath 14th Street.

The study described Lower Manhattan neighborhoods as more desirable moving destinations, adding: “Manhattan is now undergoing something of a downtown renaissance, with areas like the Civic Center and Lower East Side seeing some of the most pronounced in-migration in the city. Part of the draw to these neighborhoods may well be their proximity to Brooklyn, which has firmly cemented itself as the hipper, sometimes cheaper alternative to Manhattan. In fact, the top five most popular neighborhoods in Manhattan as ranked by real estate searches are all close to Brooklyn.” 

Graphs from placer.ai showing population change for New York and its boroughs
Manhattan’s population growth since both 2018 and the pandemic is a contrast to other boroughs. To explore an interactive graphic, go to placer.ai’s website. Graph: placer.ai

The remote work revolution has also affected residential trends, with many office buildings and their commuter-adjacent retail economies languishing in the light of permanently hybrid or work from home policies. In a recent piece outlining Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams’ ambitious “New New York” initiative, Gothamist noted that while subway usage and foot traffic in Midtown was up on the worst of the pandemic, commercial office vacancies stood at 22 percent — the highest they’ve been since the economic downturn of the mid-1970s. 

The Adams administration published new details on Monday of how it could encourage converting large swaths of underused office space to create desperately needed residential housing, which could potentially re-populate Midtown’s business district. One part of the plan would effectively rezone parts of Hell’s Kitchen below W41st Street, close to the Garment District where such conversions are currently forbidden.

A falling population in parts of Hell’s Kitchen has not been matched by falling house prices, and the mayor and city authorities believe building more housing is crucial to boosting New York’s economic prospects. Increasing the supply of housing should create much more economic activity, which in turn will end population declines.

“Enabling more offices to convert to housing will help us bring back our commercial districts while also addressing our housing supply crisis,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer in a press release on the initiative, which aims to add as many as 20,000 new units over the next decade. “The recommendations in this report will set us on the path to achieving these critical goals, and I look forward to partnering with our colleagues in Albany and the City Council to ‘Get Stuff Built.’”

A map from the mayor's office showing where offices may be converted to residential
The mayor’s office proposals would allow office conversions in all areas, including those marked red in Hell’s Kitchen. Map: Office Adaptive Reuse Study

Other recommendations include

  • Expanding the universe of office buildings with the most flexible regulations for conversion to residential use from buildings constructed through 1961 to those constructed through 1990 — easing the potential conversion process for an additional 120 million square feet of office space
  • Allowing office buildings to convert to various much-needed types of housing, including supportive housing, which is currently effectively forbidden
  • Exploring and pursuing a tax incentive program to support the production of affordable and mixed-income housing through office conversions — adding to the city’s affordable housing stock without deterring other private investment in conversions and housing creation
  • Creating a property tax abatement program to incentivize retrofitting office space for child care centers, tackling another citywide shortage.

But when — and whether — the recommendations would make it past the idea stage with enough funding is still up for debate. Until significantly more affordable new housing and work-from-home, mixed-use spaces come online, Midtown may still be singing the high-rent, low population blues. 

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5 Comments

  1. “A falling population in parts of Hell’s Kitchen has not been matched by falling house prices…”

    Yes, I think it’s been obvious for years that the super-rich are buying apartments and not actually living here, using them solely as investments and not homes. This keeps the rental and real estate market artificially high, along with real estate conglomerates who can afford to lose money in some neighborhoods because their portfolios are so large. We need major regulation of real estate ownership, but there is far too much monetary ownership of Albany and local government by the real estate industry. Tragic.

  2. I’m looking for the name and address of 2 stores you wrote about a while ago. One was plain , t shirts etc. 1 was fancy stuff. They were on either sides of a staircase. Can you help? Thanks‼️

  3. Interesting but I’m not sure I believe that 10036 drooped 10%. Vacancy rate minimal, some apt units combined (but really how many? again minimal.) so how to explain it? the method of using cell phone data seems flawed to me. It would seem that fewer people shopping in and going to bars and restaurants in Hell’s Kitchen and therefore not using their cell phones ) could explain it partly… no? Broadway numbers still down, certainly fewer gays going to Hk bars, etc.

  4. With the quality of life falling sharply in HK over the last few years, is it really a surprise people are fleeing?

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