Fashion Center looks to boost its image.

The Fashion Center Business Improvement District has launched a new initiative to attract more retailers to the area.

The Fashion Center, located between the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the Penn Station and the Grand Central Station, has long been populated with delis and pizza shops. The BID would like to see a greater variety of choices in the neighborhood, including more fashion apparel stores and outlets targeted toward the rising residential developments on its borders.

But in addition to facing competition from such booming retail areas as Times Square and 34th Street, the Fashion Center faces a challenge in overcoming its image as an industrial neighborhood.

"There is a mental barrier that exists here for a lot of retail users because this district is still zoned for manufacturing," said Barbara Blair Randall, executive vice president of the Fashion Center BID. "The city is loath to change the zoning and that makes the challenge for us even greater. There are a lot of people who are afraid that they can be moved out because of it."

Randall explained that the BID's goal for the area would not resemble anything like the tourist-crazy retail of Times Square. Instead, the BID's panel would like to promote the Fashion Center's legacy as an immigrant haven and an authentic New York neighborhood.

"We view this neighborhood as anti-Times Square, we are not going to have Disney or Ernst & Young here, because it would not be appropriate," she said. "We are not trying to dramatically change the neighborhood. It has a value, it's reminiscent of a particular time and place, it has been an economic engine of this city for over a hundred years. What we need to do is evolve, so that our offerings to the public in terms of retail are more contemporary, more in line with what today's consumers need."

Randall discounts the idea of a big box store as the possible anchor for the Fashion Center, both because she feels the floor plates in most of its buildings are too small and because there would be competition from Harold Square. But Karen Bellantoni, senior managing director with Robert K. Futterman & Associates, thinks a large anchor tenant might be exactly what the neighborhood needs.

"If they could put together one nice [piece] of space and put one nice big tenant in there, it would attract other retailers and kind of clean up the area," Bellantoni said. "There has got to be a reason for people to shop off 34th Street. Right now, it's a nine-to-five area, there is nothing there on Saturdays or Sundays. They just need to get something other than Duane Reades, and dells and banks."

Other retail brokers agree, though Joseph Aquino, managing director of Garrick-Aug Worldwide, thinks a big expensive restaurant might do the job just as well.

"This area is getting away from fast food and inexpensive clothes, higher end retailers are recognizing the buying potential that this corridor has," he said. "I think the landlords and the BID have to maybe wait a little longer for the right retailer and not just take the first company that comes along. Retailers are very smart, but they have a herd mentality--once they see a few good stores go into the market, they will follow."

Bellantoni also thinks right now would be the perfect time to steer retailers away from the competition at Times Square and 34th Street.

"My sense is that on 42nd Street and on 34th Street, the rents are getting to a point where they would be an incentive to go a block off," she said.

But David LaPierre, senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis, thinks that Fashion Center BID would be more prudent if it concentrated on improving the quality, not the profile, of its retail tenants. With an over-abundance of strong retail strips in its vicinity, the Fashion Center would have a hard time getting national brands to come in.

"The Fashion Center has a solid triangle of transportation, it's very accessible to pedestrian traffic, but it will cater more to a mid-level retailer--basic services, banks, drug stores," LaPierre said. "Everyone would love for it to have better retail, but I don't think there is enough room for it to evolve into a fashion district. You might be able to bring in better food than what's there, better pedestrian traffic, the quality of the stores can improve. It just isn't destination shopping."