a decade, a large empty lot between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue has sat empty, waiting for Trinity to develop it. The church demolished the buildings here in 2007, and has populated the site with a variety of pop-up businesses ever since. There are no proposals for the space on Trinity’s website, although it is noted that “Trinity thinks about the future of Hudson Square in decades and centuries.”

381-387 Canal Street: Located just outside Trinity’s plans for Hudson Square, the first clusters of small businesses appear along Canal between Thompson Street and West Broadway. These include Canal Alarms, which has been in business since 1941.

391 Canal Street: Unfortunately, many of the storefronts along the five block stretch of Canal between Thompson Street and Broadway have emptied. Argo Electronics,described by Vanishing New York as “a beautiful little remnant of old Canal,” closed in October 2017 after a run of over 37 years.

357-361 Canal Street: Most of the empty storefronts along this section of Canal Street have been created by real estate speculators, who have been buying up property since at least 2012, in hopes of gentrifying the area and driving up rents. These three buildings are all owned by United American Land, and the storefronts have been empty since at least 2013. UAL is one of the other largest property holders along Canal Street; it owns approximately ten buildings, almost all with empty storefronts.

351 Canal Street: Sold in 2013 for $24.75 million, this building is still undergoing a renovation. “There are a lot of people banking