Downtown Hollywood has the shiny new skyline to prove it is on the rise, with fresh apartment towers and a buzzy food hall, but many local merchants say the boom stops at their front doors. Longtime small-business owners describe constant turnover, rent hikes and a drumbeat of closures even as construction cranes keep moving. The disconnect has some shopkeepers openly wondering whether all those new units will ever translate into reliable neighborhood customers.
Business owners told Axios that the new high-rises have not delivered the promised surge in foot traffic, and that permitting delays, parking headaches and rising rents are squeezing any fragile recovery. “I’ve been here since 2008, and the last couple of years have been the hardest,” said Mark Rowe, owner of Mickey Byrne’s and president of the downtown business association. Commissioner Peter Hernandez said the city is looking at closing roads on weekends and hosting farmers’ markets, while some merchants, including Veronica Coleman, say they have already decamped to Dania Pointe after rent increases.
Numbers Tell A Mixed Story
The City of Hollywood’s Downtown Market Vitality report shows ground-floor occupancy hovering around 70 percent and vacancy near 22.8 percent, and notes that much of that empty space reflects turnover and ongoing buildouts rather than a collapse in demand. The report also flags rising rents and points to strong event turnout for downtown festivals, while acknowledging that big festival crowds do not automatically convert into dependable weekday customers. The City of Hollywood market report lays out the data and trends.
Nearby Destinations Are Drawing Shoppers…