Coveted Downtown neighborhoods like Soho and the West Village have commanded some of the highest residential rents in Manhattan. But now landlords – most recently Stone Street Properties and SMA Equities – have found that converting ground-floor apartments into retail space is far more profitable. Stone Street filed plans to convert a first floor apartment at 101 MacDougal Street, between Bleecker Street and Minetta Lane, to a store, while SMA Equities did the same at 22 Spring Street, between Elizabeth and Mott streets. And these guys aren’t the only ones – in the last two years, landlords have moved to convert apartments in at least 12 buildings in Manhattan to much more valuable retail (according to The Real Deal research).

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