They are planning 12 apartments with a ground-floor store.
Its new owners, who got it at an auction of city properties for $325,000, hope to turn it into offices and a ground-floor store.
The real estate board's report, which uses data collected from 15 retail companies, looks at 2,278 available ground-floor stores across Manhattan.
Madam Walker also ran a ground-floor retail store.
Novare is also building two towers with ground-floor stores, 100 hotel rooms and more than 900 condominiums.
The tenants in the two ground-floor stores, a laundry and a numbers parlor, each paid $325 a month.
It would be a 307-room hotel, with no church and five ground-floor stores.
New residential construction is not allowed and ground-floor stores can operate only by special permit.
They will also have ground-floor stores, Mr. Valgora said, creating a street scene.
Mr. Ohebshalom said they hope to renovate it with a ground-floor store and offices above.