Many people strolling through the neighborhood, especially those from outside New York, see only the street-level retail shops.
Their forms are essentially traditional courtyard blocks with street-level shops connected by a series of covered porticoes.
They have no public gallery or street-level shop.
Palm trees along the center of Canal Street were uprooted and a few street-level shops were ripped open by the wind.
Development work began in 2012 on new hotel accommodation and street-level shops.
Sassinak glanced that way and saw only blank walls above the street-level shops.
"We are paying more but it is nothing compared to the rent you pay in a street-level shop."
The preserved Hoboken building will have street-level retail shops, and its apartments will range in size from 1,100 to 2,300 square feet.
Instead of opening a street-level shop to lure customers, the company is trying to bring more clients to its cozy wood-paneled studio.
Where families once lived above their stores, there is a vast amount of empty space sitting right above the street-level shops of many American towns.