Opportunity knocks on Wall Street, after hours.

"Manhattan's toe, that 1.5 square-mile triangle pulsating south of Canal Street and contained by the confluence of the Hudson and East Rivers, is where Manhattan began. Here lay Nieuw Amsterdam, founded in 1625, the first permanent settlement of Europeans in this area, the first fortification, the first business district, the first community..." - AIA Guide to New York City, 1988

"As time passed, the little trading post became the marketplace and financial capital of the rapidly expanding colony. Almost from the first, commercial establishments began a ceaseless march northward, encroaching upon steadily retreating residential districts. The Wall Street stockade, built by the Dutch in 1653 as the town's northern limit, was removed by the British in 1699..." - The WPA Guide to New York City, 1939

The rest, as they say, is retail history. Like how, over the next three centuries (and then some), this tiny commercial enclave grew into the world's biggest and best-known shopping mall, in the 1970's and 80's drawing high fashion merchants from all over the globe to set up tony boutiques in Midtown and Uptown Manhattan.

Way back then, as New York City moved relentlessly north, out of the labyrinth of twisting side-streets and alleyways, the once-thriving nexus of shipping, international trade and commerce went straight: Wall Street, a state of mind as much as a place in time from 9-to-5, Monday through Friday, the world's insurance, financial and banking capital non-pareil.

Yet, there were things money couldn't buy. Came sundown, with the denizens of this not-so-mythical place fleeing for home, there were no services to speak of for those left behind - the office clean-up crews and financial clerks on the night shift.

If you wanted a cup of coffee, you'd have to walk up to Little Italy. A pair of shoelaces or Rolaids? Fuhgetaboutit. Retail shut down at 6 p.m. and wouldn't reopen till 8 a.m. the next day. Never on Saturday. Emergency medical services? Call 911 and pray.

But then, in the mid-80's, with the northward migration to Park Avenue of the major banks and investment houses, the emergence of the South Street Seaport as a major tourist and yuppie shopping destination, and the cautious development of luxury housing south of Olympia & York's World Financial Centre, the pendulum began to swing the other way: people began to re-appear Downtown after sundown. Even on weekends. Some actually moved in to live there. But, apparently, not enough of them to matter to the demographers charged with determining where the next store opening would take place. Or when. "Wall Street? Where's that?" Better the outskirts of Buffalo.

You can't really fault them. In addition to new rental and condo apartments, in the years leading up to the Giuliani Administration's Lower Manhattan Economic Revitalization Plan, there were only about 1,800 converted units of housing - read "lofts" - in that part of town. Total population fell short of 14,000. Not enough to have any bottomline impact.

Fast forward to the 1990's. They still had no place to shop for the basic necessities of life. No surprise, really. To retailers, who had inched their way south to SoHo or east to the Seaport, the civilized world of syndication abruptly ended south of Canal, west of Chinatown, forcing the venturesome residents of Battery Park City and Southbridge Towers to drive, respectively, to New Jersey and Brooklyn for their bok choy-free groceries.

But now, suddenly, there's hope - and great opportunity for those seeking to tap an ever-growing market of the young, demanding and - most important - affluent New Yorkers.

Since late '95, more than 2,000 more residential units have been converted or are under construction, with several hundred more in development. (Carl Weisbrad of The Alliance for Downtown New York Inc. now projects 7,000 units of converted residential housing by the year 2002.) An impressive number of the larger conversions are being bought by young families - meaning they'll need Pampers as well as Piagets.

Also, add to these new homesteaders the transient population of 550 newly-built or convened hotel rooms. Where once there stood just one hotel (the Vista in the World Trade Center), others have risen, the latest being Harry Cipriani's 160-room hotel conversion at 55 Wall Street, the former home of First National City Bank (Citibank) - a credit card's throw from Rockrose's sold-out residential conversion at 45 Wall and Donald Trump's 40 Wall (nee Manufacturers Hanover Trust).

This new influx - full-time residents and overnight visitors - will need and want what everyone else expects to find "in the neighborhood" after hours. Not just restaurants (fast food as well as four-star) but - this being the city that never sleeps - 24-hour supermarkets, gourmet delis, bakeries and drug stores, haberdasheries, boutiques, dry cleaners, liquor stores, shoemakers, video rentals, hair and nail salons, and houseware and petfood suppliers that stay open till 9 p.m. weekdays - and more important, weekends. (And if someone from Sony reads this, how about another Loew's?)

From a single-store or chain merchant's point of view, this is pure virgin territory, waiting to be tapped. Unlike Uptown, where demand continues to exceed inventory (as reflected by rems ranging as high as $500 psf), Wall Street has more than enough potential retail space to go around in the $55-to-$100 psf range. And for an extra added incentive, there are some generous tax abatements on all Downtown commercial leases signed after April 1st this year.

All it takes is a bit of imagination and taste on the part of the prospective tenant; willingness to hire a truly creative architect/store planner; a realistic construction budget; and a retail broker sufficiently savvy to tell the trees from the forest.

For high-profile retailers, "Wall Street" is as close to the Garden of Eden as they'll find these days. The merging, consolidation, downsizing and relocation of venerable financial institutions have created, for the upscale purveyor and restaurateur alike, some quite magnificent retail space - the kind of deep-windowed, high-ceilinged granite showcases more commonly found along Rome's Via Condotti, London's Bond Street and Paris' Rue Faubourg St. Honore.

Consider our [MHP Retail Services] latest exclusive: 44 Wall, with 12,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor, 30-foot high ceilings and 25-foot tall windows, occupying the entire block from Wall to Pine Streets. Think of it: top-of-the-line display space, never to be duplicated in our lifetime, for less than half of what it would cost you Uptown. Carpe Diem!

And, oh yes, do call us in the morning.