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To gallery owners and collectors of modern art, it is SoHo moved north. For real estate brokers in need of a catchy sales pitch, it is the new Flatiron district. And to couples out for a weekend stroll, it is a place to buy a carpet, visit an indoor food mall or check out some hot new restaurants.
It is the area that radiates west and north from Eighth Avenue and 14th Street, the most recent Manhattan neighborhood to get a retailing makeover.
"When we moved here four years ago, Eighth Avenue was still a dump," says Ike Timianko, who opened a branch of Central Carpet in a 100-year-old former bank building on the northwest corner of 14th Street. "It has completely changed."
The 40,000-square-foot Central Carpet acted as an anchor, bringing well-heeled shoppers to a neighborhood few had visited. Art galleries began to migrate from SoHo,...