One Abandoned NYC Block Is "Frozen" In Peak-Pandemic Time One Abandoned NYC Block Is "Frozen" In Peak-Pandemic Time Life in most places is making an attempt to move forward from the pandemic lockdowns. But for one city block in New York, that isn''t the case. Outside of the 59th Street subway stop, across Lexington Avenue, Bloomberg writes you can still find an entire block "frozen" in peak-pandemic time. The area, which used to be prime New York real estate, was formerly the home of Banana Republic, the Gap and Victoria''s Secret. Now, all people see are signs trying to find tenants for the empty buildings. Steve Soutendijk, an executive managing director at Cushman Wakefield, told Bloomberg: “It’s probably the slowest market to return to pre-Covid levels out of any in New York City. It’s a little bit of a mystery.” This block is a microcosm of how slow the city has been to recover, post-lockdowns, the report says. It was also suffering heading into Covid, with ridership exiting at 59th Street "declining for years" and businesses starting to select other parts of the city in favor of occupying the block.