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July 29, 2008

Korean-Style Yogurt Pays Big Bucks for Court Street

32-Court-Street-0708.jpg
Local Korean-style yogurt chain Yofiore signed a lease for 650 square feet at 32 Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn, according to Timothy King, principal of CPEX Real Estate. The rent: "close to the asking price of $14,000 a month," which would be $258 per square foot! We checked Massey Knakal's Brooklyn retail corridor report from last year, which put retail rent on the commercial strip between $85 and $99 per square foot (Fulton Mall and 86th Street in Bay Ridge were the highest in Brooklyn, with rents between $175 and $265). King said he's seeing record-breaking rents on Court Street because of its myriad of customer bases—wealthy residents from the Heights and those moving into Downtown Brooklyn, people headed to the municipal buildings, students, tourists, and people visiting other retailers, like gyms and the movie theater. The release cited "Duane Reade, which has two profitable stores on Court Street two blocks apart, and Chase, which has a number ATMs and branches on Court Street to serve its customers," as evidence of the corridor's success (although some might cite that as an example of chainification).

Yofiore owner Anthony Shim said the Brooklyn store is scheduled to open early September. There are six Yofiores in Queens, three will be opening in Virginia and Maryland, and the company is looking for sites in Texas and Seattle. The release said, "Yofiore features nonfat and low sugar frozen yogurt in coffee, green tea, and original flavors. Natural foods (like Cap'n Crunch??) are used for toppings." Do you think this place will sell enough yogurt to stay open?




Posted by sarah ryley at 10:28 AM | Comments (34)
Categories: Downtown Brooklyn, Food and Drink, Market, Retail

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Comments

More yogurt? Yeast infections must be down. That's good.

Posted by: superstooper at July 29, 2008 10:29 AM

So $466 per day. Maybe an average sale is $4.00? Maybe the margins are as high as 75%? That means they have to sell
$466/($4.00 X .75) = 155 of these every day just to pay the rent, never mind utilities, salaries, profit, etc. Three employees at $10 per hour (if they can find them over there) for a 12 hour day means another $360 or another 120 yogurts. Are they going to sell over 300 of these every day?

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 10:38 AM

Wait - did I miss the post on the newly-revealed FroYo place opening up in Fort Greene in the old Keur N'Deye place?

Posted by: GreenestFort at July 29, 2008 10:51 AM

Is this across from the movie theater? Could do quite well there. Though I will note that a Ben & Jerry's around the corner on Atlantic didn't survive long.

Posted by: zgori at July 29, 2008 10:51 AM

"Though I will note that a Ben & Jerry's around the corner on Atlantic didn't survive long."

Nor did the location on Court Street a few years earlier - I think it was where the shuttered UPS Store is now.

Posted by: lambretta76 at July 29, 2008 10:58 AM

I thought that Ben and Jerry's just moved further down Court. Could be wrong- not from the hood.

Posted by: superstooper at July 29, 2008 11:05 AM

Does anyone know what the rents are in park slope for commercial space?

Posted by: troll at July 29, 2008 11:08 AM

The asking rent for the 2nd Street Cafe was $14,000.

It was just rented to a RxKids, a pharmacy for children with their other location in the West Village.

I'm surprised to hear Court Street and 7th Avenue are charging similar rents. Actually this location sounds a lot smaller than the 2nd Street Cafe space...

Some spaces on 5th can be had for $6-8K a month.

Most on 7th are around 8-14K or so I think.

Obviously depends on size.

Posted by: 11217 at July 29, 2008 11:17 AM

So there will be two frozen yogurt places -- one accross from the movie (near State Street) and another closer to Borough Hall. But the Busy Chef near the movie is closed (due to thefts by owner/manager) and it looked like it sold more ice cream than anythign else.

And no, Ben&Jerry's is gone.

Posted by: BH76 at July 29, 2008 11:26 AM

Didn't we just hear about a 2nd outpost of Yogo Monster opening up on Court also?

(1st is on 7th and Union)

Posted by: 11217 at July 29, 2008 11:35 AM

btw, Ben and Jerrys closed for personal reasons. The owner was held up in the store at gunpoint, in the day. He said, "thats it, no more".


Posted by: Prodigal_Son at July 29, 2008 11:38 AM

BH76...i thought that was just the other Busy Chef location along with Oven & Blue Pig. And there was no mention of them closing. Are you sure the one on Court St is closed?

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 11:38 AM

11217 - thanks :)

Posted by: troll at July 29, 2008 11:45 AM

Fancy frozen yogurt places are the new Starbucks.

Posted by: dobro at July 29, 2008 11:47 AM

well another over priced store I won't use. Now you know why a mom and pop store can't survive....any one know what Starbucks on Court is paying(either one).....

Posted by: smeyer418 at July 29, 2008 11:48 AM

Yes -- the Busy Chef in Court was closed over the weekend... and all those movie goers had no ice cream.

Posted by: BH76 at July 29, 2008 11:53 AM

Does anyone know if the sister restaurants on Henry closed...Busy Chef, Oven & Blue Pig?? That's where the actual credit card fraud was occurring. I'm in negotiations with the owner to buy his building on Stuyvesant Ave.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 11:56 AM

busy chef on court across from movie theatre is definately closed and the blue pig / Oven are definately still open.

Posted by: bowl of dicks at July 29, 2008 12:01 PM

Just called all three on henry St and got no answer from any one of them. What do you think BOD?

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 12:06 PM

FroYo is so early 90s.

Posted by: gkw at July 29, 2008 12:12 PM

Dave, I walked right by them all last night and specifically looked in to see what the deal was. Blue Pig and Busy Chef were both open and relatively busy (Blue Pig had some cute little blue chairs and a table outside for the kiddies). Oven was definitely closed. It's possible they don't open on Mondays. I'll have a look later if you get no answer before then.

Posted by: Biff Champion at July 29, 2008 12:33 PM

Biff...same owner also is owner of the bar on the next corner...can't remember the name

i'll try them all again later

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 12:37 PM

i was up in the hts on saturday around lunchtime and used the restroom in Oven. there were no patrons in there, but the place was open and there were 2 employees behind the bar. Next door at blue pig, the place was open and packed!

Posted by: bowl of dicks at July 29, 2008 12:46 PM

Dave, I think you mean The Wine Bar at 50 Henry Street (at Cranberry). It looks nice, but I haven't been in it yet. Lots of previous businesses failed in that specific location but the Wine Bar looks much more crowded each night than it's predecessors were. Anyway, it's still open as well. The only one I'm unsure of is Oven, but I do believe it was also open this past weekend.

Posted by: Biff Champion at July 29, 2008 12:49 PM

Thanks BOD. Oven was the only one I couldn't confirm. I think their pizzas are decent but for some reason the place never seems crowded.

Posted by: Biff Champion at July 29, 2008 12:50 PM

Still no answer at Oven or Busy Chef!!! Anyone up for a wager???

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 2:47 PM

Brooklyn Paper now reports that Oven, Busy Chef (both locations) and Blue Pig closed today, permanently.

Posted by: NorthHeights at July 29, 2008 3:03 PM

Sorry, make that Brooklyn EAGLE.

Posted by: NorthHeights at July 29, 2008 3:05 PM

Wow, NorthHeights, thanks for the info. That's going to really hurt that stretch of Henry Street which has struggled with various commercial ventures. I wonder what that means for the Wine Bar, if indeed it has the same owner, as Dave mentioned above.

Posted by: Biff Champion at July 29, 2008 3:11 PM

WOW...did it give a specific reason NorthHeights? I'm not being facetious but I fail to see how a bit of credit card fraud would shut the restaurants permanently in addition to the other Busy Chef. This is terrible. I actually like the guy who I know as developer and (part) owner.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 3:15 PM

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=22147

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 29, 2008 3:18 PM

that commercial space on the corner of cranberry / henry (street level of the cranlyn apartment building) has always had bad luck. come to think of it, same with the opposite corner space where the wine bar is now.

Posted by: bowl of dicks at July 29, 2008 8:28 PM

that's right BOD. That location (where the Wine Bar is) had two or three unsuccessful predecessors in the past couple of years. The Wine Bar seems to be doing ok. I again went by Blue Pig, Oven and Busy Chef this morning and didn't see any explanatory notes posted on the door or windows.

Posted by: Biff Champion at July 30, 2008 7:52 AM

It's sad. This guy (the primary owner and the guy with the vision and the concepts) works hard to change things. He is doing a great job in Crown Heights as well.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 30, 2008 8:32 AM

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