Garment Center remains stable in good times & bad.

Apparel manufacturing has long been the backbone of New York City's industrial base. From the Wave of Eastern European immigration at the turn of the century to the current influx of new immigrants from Asia, latin America and the Caribbean, the garment industry has provided solid, high-wage jobs for the nation's newest citizens.

Consider this: At some $14 billion per year, the apparel business in New York is the city's largest manufacturing industry. By comparison, the film, broadcast and theater industry has an estimated local impact on New York City of just $3 billion annually.

In terms of commercial real estate, the 8-block, 31 million square-foot area, roughly from 35th to 41st Street, between Fifth and 9th Avenues known as the Garment Center, comprises over 5,100 showrooms, 4,500 factories and countless other back office operations for thousands of apparel firms, both big and small.

The Fashion Industry is the largest employer in the metropolitan area, providing over 250,000 jobs in design, manufacturing, distribution and related activities.

Characterized mainly by small, entrepreneurial and family-owned firms, 80 percent of New York City's apparel manufacturing employment comes from companies with less than 100 employees.

The stability and economic viability of the Garment Center is due in large part to the special relationship that has developed between the owners of commercial of whom have unique needs in the fast-paced, ever-changing world of fashion.

Throughout the real estate decline of the late-80s, the Garment Center remained remarkably stable and occupied, as owners adjusted their properties to the shifting tides of the industry, converting an over-abundance of showroom space to other uses within the apparel business to meet the changing needs of the diverse clientele within the industry.

Facilitating the communication of these needs between users and owners has emerged a select group of commercial real estate brokers who have bridged the gap of language and understanding between these unique tenants and their landlords.

One such broker focusing exclusively on the Garment Center is Jeffrey Mann, president of The Mann Group, Inc., who grew up learning the apparel business from his father and spent the early part of his career as a dress manufacturer himself for almost 25 years.

Five years ago, Mann made a major career shift, opening his own ful-service real estate brokerage and consulting company to fill what he saw as a void in the industry.

"I understand how the people think, the language they speak and what their goals are, "Mann says. "This is a very volatile industry, unlike any other. There is constant change and it can all happen very quickly. You can be flying high one minute, then guess wrong with a product line. You have to be quick to expand and contract."

The result, says Mann, is lots of five year leases which are susceptible to change as quickly as styles change. Apparel business can go from small to big users overnight, resulting in multiple moves, as the business is usually divided into 3 separate components. Showrooms, where over 22,000 buyers visit annually for five market weeks and over 65 trade shows, usually remain constant. Mann cited 1400 Broadway as a prime showroom building for moderate dress designs, and 498 7th Avenue as a good location for more expensive apparel.

It is the other two components, back office operations, including bookkeeping, pattern-making and production design; and shipping and cutting of piece goods and fabric, that more often need to be adjusted as a company contracts and expands.

At 1001 Avenue of the Americas, owned by Alvin Schwartz and also managed by Helmsley Spear, a new center for apparel back office needs, including bookkeeping, pattern-making and design, has also emerged.

Mann's unique relationship with many of the top building owners, including Schneider, Schwartz, Arnold Steinberg and Aaron Gural of Newmark, have allowed many of his clients to upgrade their positions and facilities during the shifting real estate market of the last several years.

"I was fortunate as a youngster growing up to meet these guys through my father," Mann recalls. "I have found them very sensitive to the changes in the garment industry, constantly re-evaluating the situation and being flexible and open-minded. They're always willing to listen to what I have to say."

But that is only half the equation for The Mann Group's success. The other half is not losing touch with your roots, and keeping on top of the changes in the industry as they occur. "This is very big business, but a very small network. I have the advantage of still being with some of the people I grew up with. I don't know of any other broker with this type of background."

Calling his firm independent, with a loyalty to tenants, Mann has established the goal of constantly translating their needs to owners concerned with retaining tenants and keeping their buildings in line with the changing swings of the industry.

"I've done a lot of deals in the first five years and brought the owners a lot of business," Mann says. "I've found them to be very accessible, understanding and willing to listen. I think we've taken some of the fear out of tenant/landlord dealings."

Some of those fears come from cultural differences, as Mann notes that many Chinese and Korean-owned firms have made up the new wave of Garment Center immigrants. "You have to be sensitive to their needs and culture," he says Mann, displaying business cards in both Korean and Chinese and noting that he has interpreters constantly on call to facilitate the deal-making process.

In recent months, Mann notes that good firms along the Garment Center's side streets have been able to upgrade as rents along the prestige blocks have become more affordable. "The owners have been able to strike deals that both sides are happy with."

Mann has recently opened a satellite office in New Jersey to deal with flight of larger apparel companies in need of warehouse and distribution space in excess of 20,000 feet, which is becoming harder and harder to come by in the city. Places like Secaucus and Carlstadt, New Jersey have begun to claim the title of "Seventh Avenue West," as some of the larger companies set up shop just across the river in search of lower costs for these types of operation.

But Mann says that New York City will always be the center of the apparel industry. "The Garment Center is a very special place and will always draw buyers from around the world. You just can't beat New York."

The Fashion Industrial in New York City clearly maintains many strengths, even with the significant decline it has suffered over the past 20 years, as over 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, mostly to low-wage factories in Asia and the Caribbean basin, and further erosion through the growth of regional markets in Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles.

Still, the Fashion Industry maintains a $ billion city-wide payroll, contributing a total of over $500 million annually in tax revenues. In addition, retailers visiting the city for various trade functions account for over $100 million, fully 10 percent of annual tourist dollars spent in New York City.

To ensure that New York City remains the dominant market for fashion in the U.S., a new Fashion Center Business Improvement District (BID) was formed in September of 1993 to strengthen the fashion design and manufacturing industry.

The BID, with a first year operating budget of $3 million funded by a .25 percent assessment on the value of all properties within the district, provides private security and sanitation services to the area to increase the frequency and duration of visits by U.S. and international retail buyers.

The Fashion Center BID will address concerns in six areas during 1994:

Security: Beginning in March, the BID began providing 16 uniformed and 3 plainclothes security agents to patrol the streets Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In addition to the patrols, a special security phone number has been made available to everyone within the Fashion District. A call to this line, located within the BID office at 249 West 39th Street, will prompt immediate dispatch of a plainclothes or uniformed security officer.

Sanitation: The BID also has provided 21 uniformed sanitation workers to clean the Fashion Center's streets and sidewalks as a supplement to services already provided by the City of New York.

Visual/Hospitality: The BID plans to distinguish the area visually through an outdoor unification program including logos, lights, kiosks, banners and displays, all featuring a special "button" logo designed by Pentagram, which will also adorn the uniforms of sanitation and security personnel. The BID will also work to upgrade ground floor retail tenants and increase number and quality of restaurants and cafes. Other street-level visual unification programs, such as exhibitions, plantings by botanical organizations and streets fairs will be implemented over the months and years to come.

Marketing and Public Relations: The Fashion Center BID will execute marketing programs to encourage national and international buyers to increase the frequency and duration of their visits. Among these programs is a direct mail campaign targeted to "out-of-town" retailers; kiosks at airports and select hotels; distribution of a quarterly newsletter; development of an industry database; and pro-bono advertising. A toll-free number will ring directly to the BID office to answer all questions about programs, services and the fashion industry in general.

Buyers' Services: In the coming months, the Fashion Center BID will offer a host of Buyers' Services, including discounts on airfaires, hotels, restaurants and theaters; Saturday hours (whereby vendors help buyers make better use of their weekends by being available for appointments on Saturdays); taxistands; and shuttle bus service between select hotels, the Bryant Park tents and The Fashion Center during market weeks.

Community Outreach: Because the BID is committed to serving not only tenants and business, but also residents of the area, The Fashion Center BID will fund a social services outreach program. The BID will not provide the services itself, but will like the needy to city social programs which are already in place.

The new Fashion Center BID also benefits from the combined strength of five other geographically contiguous BIDs: Grand Central Partnership, Times Square; Fifth Avenue, 34th Street and Bryant Park.

Combine these new services aimed at the future of New York's Garment Industry with the concern and flexibility of the area's major owners and the emergence of brokers with insider knowledge like Jeff Mann, it's easy to see why the Garment Center has remained one of the most stable markets in New York City commercial real estate, and how New York is committed to remaining "The Fashion Capital of the Nation."