Printing is becoming fashionable. Not that it wasn’t in vogue before, but now some area printers are moving into the digs to prove it. With Manhattan printers being pushed out of high-rent areas like the Meat Packing district and Chelsea, many have found a new home in a most unlikely place—the once-famed Garment District.

“One of the few places left, at a rent [printers] can afford, on the island of Manhattan, is the apparel area,” said Larry Roberts, who, along with Eric Lassoff, is a senior managing director at Plymouth Partners, a New York City real estate firm.

With most clothing manufacturing now being done oversees, the Garment District remains that only in name. Most recently, these vacated properties between 36th and 40th Streets from Eighth to Tenth Avenues, housed dot-coms and storage companies, whose businesses dissolved because of the weak economy. These big industrial World War I and older vintage buildings historically catered to garment factories, and are known for their ability to serve as a manufacturing, warehouse, and distribution site, all in one.

“They offer efficient layouts, concrete floors, good size freight elevators, heavy floor loads, sufficient power, and affordability,” pointed out Paul Walker, a director at Adams & Co. Real Estate, which has worked to secure printers new homes. “And the location is close to mass transit, making for easy deliveries,” added James Buslik, owner of Adams & Co.

“Because many of these buildings were originally intended as textile and clothing factories, there are large floor plates that can handle the heavy load of printing presses,” Mr. Roberts explained further.

Moreover, rents in the printing districts—Hudson Square, Tribeca, Varick Street, and Chelsea—are on the rise, and can be as high as $32 per sq. ft., whereas space in the Garment District goes as low as $13 per sq. ft. “If a printer can even get a deal in Chelsea,” Mr. Roberts said, “maybe it’s the back of a building, looking into an air shaft, with no natural light. And, it’s still going to be $20 a sq. ft.”

The Dot-com Debacle
The late 1990s and beginning of this century brought with it the infamous dot-com craze. As a result, there was a mad scramble for office space and realtors couldn’t find enough of it to house the start-up techie companies, and their venture capitalist counterparts. Soon, landlords saw opportunity to convert their older buildings, modernize them, create office space, attract a new type of tenant, and, of course, garner higher rents. Long-time faithful print shop tenants were suddenly squeezed out, because as manufacturers, they were only willing to pay the lowest rents, and from a landlord’s point of view, they were increasingly becoming undesirable tenants.

Although many dot-coms have since gone under, landlords are still unreceptive to having a printer as a tenant. “It’s hard to place printers in Manhattan,” says Mr. Buslik. “It’s like wanting warts. Everyone wants an office tenant.”

Both Mr. Roberts and Mr. Lasoff agree. “No one wants the printers in Chelsea or anywhere,” Mr. Roberts admitted. “Very few buildings will still take printers.” He went on to explain that landlords are demanding more than the asking rate because they know printers have nowhere else to go. “They want to upgrade their tenant roster, and the preconceived notion is that printers are dirty, noisy, smelly, and are always using the freight elevator and double parking,” Mr. Lassoff elaborated. It is, he admitted, a form of discrimination.

The truth is though, Mr. Walker pointed out, “It’s a huge investment to move into a space for a printer. They can’t just pack up their desk and leave tomorrow,” which actually makes them a good tenant to have.

Starting Over
New York City-based Nesher Printing called 20 West 22nd Street its home for 22 years before its landlord decided not to renew its lease. When Nesher’s owner, Sheldon Wrotslavsky, bought the business in 1981, the previous owner had already been there for 10 years. On the bright side, the landlord gave 55-year-old Mr. Wrotslavsky time to find a new home—it took him almost two years before he decided on 313 West 37th Street, in the heart of the Garment District.

Nesher’s story is probably similar to many other printers that have been ousted from their spaces. About three years ago, a dot-com company moved in on the floor below Nesher Printing. The president of the company’s office was located directly under Nesher’s cutting machine. It didn’t take long before the president complained to the landlord, who then sued Nesher Printing. “I had to spend thousands of dollars to lift up the machine and put padding underneath to muffle the sound,” Mr. Wrotslavsky said. And, within a year, the dot-com left. The landlord had trouble renting the space and blamed Nesher Printing, giving the company its walking papers.

“Since most of my clients are in Midtown, I didn’t want to move downtown,” Mr. Wrotslavsky said. “The reason I chose this building was the price and that the lease [information] was not so long. It was only the usual 12 pages, not 50 or 75 filled with many more restrictions.” It seems odd that an industrial-like building would have many caveats, but some landlords, for instance, do not allow air conditioning units to be placed in a window facing the street.

Floor weights were another concern. Some spaces Mr. Wrotslavsky looked at had hardwood floors, which are not conducive to bearing heavy loads. His new home boasts the ability to hold 200 lbs. per sq. ft., which offers more stability than usual in buildings of this nature. Another plus was that this building pays utility costs directly to Con Edison, while many other buildings are sub-metered, which means an extra 15-20 percent.

Mr. Wrotslavsky’s eight-employee company specializes in offset short-run work, but when he moved he went to computer-to-plate, adding five new pieces of equipment to his collection—a big expenditure in itself. The move alone cost him $150,000, of which the city is subsidizing any costs that have to do with the move of machinery.

Mr. Wrotslavsky said he is beginning to get more business due to his new location, and this neighborhood has many more print brokers. He estimates getting four or five new clients since July.

If there is one drawback to his new location, he feels it is the lack of parking in the area. Yet, he is able to turn even that into a positive: “Paper suppliers have to come early in the morning to compensate,” he noted, “So, I get my deliveries early and am able to turnaround faster.”

Mr. Wrotslavsky conceded it was difficult to move after being in a place for over 20 years, and to keep customers happy while in the process of moving, but he said, “Thank God, it worked out.”

Alcides Roverano shared the same address as Mr. Wrotslavsky on 22nd Street. His company, Greenleaf Litho, called the site home since 1978, and was the last print shop left in the building. “They threw me out,” he said. “I had no choice, I had to leave.” Through Mr. Wrotslavsky, he heard of available space at 313 West 37th Street, just three floors up. He completed his move just four weeks ago.

Like Mr. Wrotslavsky, he doesn’t believe he will lose business—if anything, he hopes to gain a few new faces. Up until now though, he admitted, business has been slow, and with just four employees, he is two short. Mr. Roverano has kept an optimisitc outlook however. “I don’t scare easy,” he said with a smile.

From Suburbs to City
Steve Hartford’s story is a bit different. His company, A.E.C. Reprographics, wasn’t forced out of its space in New Hyde Park on Long Island—he chose to relocate to the Garment District. The four-year young blueprint reprographics firm specializes in reproduction, distribution, and document management, and is run by three brothers—Steve, Gary, and Scott. For them, doing business from Long Island was difficult since much of their customer base was in the city.

Steve Hartford explained that he looked at a lot of buildings before coming back to the first one he was shown at 345 West 37th Street. Initially, he was looking into basement space at 115 Broadway, but the deal fell through. “The landlord didn’t want printing in the building. He thought it would bring too much traffic,” Mr. Hartford revealed. Now, he said, it’s actually a blessing they didn’t move into that space. “This is central for many of our customers,” he added. “It’s easy for them to come and pick up documents. Being in Midtown just made sense. We cater to builders and most of them are in this area.”

Many of the buildings he looked at were dingy, he said, and truly looked like sweatshops, with old cords dangling from the ceiling. It was also important that A.E.C. Reprographics be in a building with big freight elevators that have 24-hour access. “We do a lot of Fedexing, orders come in at night and go out the next morning,” explained Mr. Hartford. “People work through the night, so it was important to have a building with access where we wouldn’t disturb the normal workflow of the building.” And, he admitted, the rent is unbeatable.

The trend, Mr. Lassoff commented, is moving away from industrial office space in general. Manufacturing seems to be moving as a whole to Queens, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. “A printer can’t pay what a record company or an advertising agency can over the haul of 10 years,” he explained. It all comes down to economics. “If the market continues to remain stagnant, some landlords will reconsider. Yet we know some landlords who would rather have their space remain empty for a significant period of time in hopes of getting office clientele.”

As for Nesher Printing and Greenleaf Litho’s old home on 22nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, it is reportedly being converted into a 130,000-sq.-ft. Home Depot—Manhattan’s first.