By: Hal C Clarke

A long-overlooked stretch of Midtown Manhattan is quietly transforming into one of the city’s most energetic destinations for dining, shopping, nightlife and living, as the New York Post reported.

The area — roughly spanning West 30th to West 42nd streets between Sixth and Eighth avenues — has evolved into a far more people-friendly zone than it was even a few years ago. Once dominated by aging offices, garment-related businesses and pass-through foot traffic, the district is now drawing crowds with a growing mix of restaurants, hotels, retail and entertainment, according to the Post.

The shift has been fueled by Midtown’s resurging commercial momentum and supercharged by a major rezoning approved this year. Known as the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan, the rezoning allows residential conversions in areas where housing was previously banned — a change that is already reshaping the neighborhood’s future, the New York Post reported.

The district, increasingly dubbed “42BELOW,” is not a single neighborhood but a patchwork of several overlapping ones. It includes Herald Square, Koreatown, the Garment District, Sixth Avenue north of the old Ladies’ Mile, and what developer Vornado Realty Trust brands as the “Penn District” around its revamped Seventh Avenue office towers.

Each section has its own personality — from buttoned-up corporate corridors near West 40th Street to lively, late-night streets farther south — but they share two major advantages: unmatched transit access and close proximity to Bryant Park and Times Square, as the Post noted.

The rezoning is expected to generate roughly 9,500 new apartments over the coming years. That new flexibility has already unleashed a wave of investment. In 2025 alone, 27 buildings in the area changed hands for a combined total exceeding $1 billion, according to JLL figures cited by the New York Post.

Many of those buyers were developers eager to unlock residential potential at underused properties that had long been restricted to manufacturing or apparel-related uses — industries that have largely vanished from the area.

Retail has surged alongside residential interest. Macy’s remains a flagship presence, but it now shares the landscape with major names like Nordstrom Rack and Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya. The Post reported that Primark opened its first Manhattan location on West 34th Street this year, adding to the district’s retail draw.

Hotels are also multiplying. Trendy brands like Moxy and Margaritaville have already set up shop, and at least three more hotels are in the development pipeline, further cementing the area’s appeal to tourists and staycationers alike.

Food has become a defining feature of the transformation. According to the Garment District Alliance, 28 new restaurants opened within its 20-block footprint this year — a jump of more than 50% compared to 2024 — while 45 existing eateries renewed their leases, the New York Post reported. Koreatown, meanwhile, continues to expand beyond West 32nd Street, with roughly 120 restaurants now stretching north and east and keeping the area buzzing late into the night.

James Famularo, president of Meridian Retail Leasing, told the Post the area’s strength lies in its balance.