East Broadway Mall
Outlet mall · Chinatown ·
Authentic Chinese foods, rare items, and great steamed buns.
Authentic Chinese foods, rare items, and great steamed buns.
"Patrons crowded and queued to enter vacant retail shops that were temporarily taken over by businesses helmed by young, Asian American entrepreneurs like Dawang clothing." - Cathy Erway
"Anchored beneath the rumbling overhead tracks of the Manhattan Bridge between Chinatown and Two Bridges, the 88 East Broadway mall has housed doctor’s offices, hairdressers, travel agencies, and clothing shops since it opened in 1988; I saw it come alive again during Lunar New Year when Welcome to Chinatown hosted a pop-up fair that filled vacant retail units with young Asian American entrepreneurs, DJs, and a lively crowd, and organizers unveiled plans for an innovation hub slated to open this fall." - Cathy Erway
"This beige, block-spanning indoor mall beneath the Manhattan Bridge at 88 East Broadway was once a bustling Chinatown center—home to a top-floor banquet hall called 88 Palace, packed dim sum service, and a wide variety of shops from stationery and antiques to lingerie and stamp sellers—but now reads as a maze of shuttered storefronts, peeling posters, and long corridors. Its decline has been driven by rising rents, COVID-related closures, and unresolved disputes between the city and the landlord, and efforts to secure state revitalization funding did not result in a direct award for the site. Still, the space has taken on an improvised community life: occasional indoor activities that mimic park gatherings, card games and tea sessions in dark corridors, children playing in the hallways, and a few resilient businesses and street-level shops that remain open. Tenants express frustration over management and security issues and worry that lengthy renovations could force further closures, even as the neighborhood’s shifting demographics and nearby art and fashion activity bring new, sometimes transient, foot traffic." - Wei Tchou
"Thanks to a $20 million state grant, the partially vacant East Broadway Mall is set to be revitalized as part of Chinatown’s project, with proposals to improve infrastructure for bikers and pedestrians and to provide street furniture and permanent structures for produce vendors." - Luke Fortney
"This decades-old fixture in Manhattan’s Chinatown is at risk of permanently shutting down due to high rent and tax payments amid the ongoing pandemic; many of the mall’s vendors, including restaurants and retail shops, have been hit hard, producing an avalanche of vacancies. Once home to about 80 mom-and-pop vendors, the mall is now down to just 17 tenants, and general manager Terry Chan is advocating for the city to help keep the longstanding space open as businesses face both economic devastation and disproportionate impacts from anti‑Asian violence and xenophobia." - Erika Adams
Bradley C
Blaze C.
Giuseppe D.
Drew B.
Tay S.
Zhong Y
Matteo C.
Jonathan M.
Mario S.
Jason L.
Andy V.
Michael C.
Athena C.
Emi T.
Scott T.
Lou S.
Ka C.
