Retail
October 6, 2009
Farmacy's Vague Reopening
We mentioned a week ago that Vermont Market and Pharmacy, rechristened Brooklyn Farmacy, was going to hold its reopening bash on Saturday. But then, The Brooklyn Paper reports, the store remained closed Sunday and Monday. Mark Stein, whom the paper describes as a reclusive owner, inherited the store from his father in 1992 and ran the store for one year before closing shop. There was one other business attempt at the location, but otherwise the storefront at Henry and Sackett streets has remained shuttered—until recently, when one of Stein's residential tenants pressured him into reopening the store as Brooklyn Farmacy, an exercise in nostalgia with a soda fountain and products like a tin of Sucrets from the '80s, but also with organic, local produce and goods. It's unclear why the store closed after its reopening party, and Stein himself doesn't know what will happen to the store.
A One-day Reopening for Vermont Market [Brooklyn Paper]
Henry St Pharmacy Reopening as a 'Farmacy' [Brownstoner]
Photo by jeanphony
September 16, 2009
Closing Bell: Shopping for High-End Retail at 345 Adams
McBrooklyn has provided visual evidence, above, of the current campaign to get a classy retailer in the large commercial space at Downtown's 345 Adams Street, next door to the newish Morten's. The space, which Muss Development bought from the city more than a year ago, used to house Department of Finance offices. The firm marketing the space told the Eagle that they're looking for a tenant like Brooks Brothers. So far, though, it's been businesses like Staples and Duane Reade that have expressed interest in taking the lease.
Marketing Underway at 345 Adams Street [McBrooklyn] GMAP
August 4, 2009
Newcomers to Bergen's Retail Strip: Hot Dogs, Yoga Gear
Two more entries have been added to the seemingly ever-expanding shopping options on Bergen between 5th Avenue and Flatbush. Already open is a branch of Lululemon, the yoga clothing/accessories store that was profiled for its cult-like following in last week's New York mag. Then, right next door, fancy hot dog joint Bark is scheduled to open in about a week, according to its owners. Closer to 5th Avenue, meanwhile, the former Unnameable Books storefront is under wraps, and something new is evidently in the works there. There are now almost no empty shop spaces on the Pintchik-controlled block. GMAP
June 15, 2009
StreetLevel: Slope Card Store Getting Bigger Digs
The very cute 5th Avenue card/gift shop Scaredy Kat is trading its current storefront for a larger one across the street, in the recently vacated Star of India space near the corner of President. The business is about to celebrate its 10-year anniversary and plans to be up and running in its new space the week after Father's Day.
Scaredy Kat [Official Site] GMAP
March 19, 2009
Retail Hardest Hit in Brooklyn
Few stores have been able to avoid the painful effects of the current recession, but mom-and-pop stores, without the deep pockets of national chains, are particularly vulnerable to the downturn. And, it turns out, these locally-owned stores are getting particularly hard hit in Brooklyn. According to a study by Rep. Anthony Weiner's office, 14.1 percent of small stores in Brooklyn are now vacant, compared with 12.2 percent in Queens and 9.1 percent in the Bronx. “When the economy catches a cold, small businesses catch pneumonia,” said Mr. Weiner, in a press release. “Too many community shops—the backbone of the city’s economy, are hit hard by this downturn.”
Brooklyn Stores Hit Hardest by Retail Slump [Crain's]
March 10, 2009
StreetLevel: 4th Ave Ramen Restaurant Ready to Roll
Zuzu Ramen, the noodle joint from the proprietors of the Australian pub Sheep Station, is scheduled to to open today. While Zuzu doesn't have a menu online yet, TONY said to "look for creative varieties with international twists including a Thai-influenced green curry–miso ramen." Brooklynian's also taken note of the opening, and one poster had this to say: "I had a preview of green curry ramen soup and it was goooooood. Rich, spicey in a balanced flavorful way - mmmmmmmm. (They've been working out the soup recipes and serving them on occasion at Sheepie. I also had some bitchin' chicken soup with a homemade dumpling during the tryouts.)" The restaurant is on the corner of Degraw and 4th Avenue.
StreetLevel: Oodles of Noodles for 4th Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP
Local Noodles [Brooklynian]
March 9, 2009
StreetLevel: Comic Book Shop Opens on Bergen
On Friday a new comic book store opened on Bergen Street between 5th Avenue and Flatbush. Bergen Street Comics comes c/o a husband-and-wife team who told us it's their first business venture. The blog Geekanerd hailed its arrival by noting that it's "not just any old comic shop, but one with leather seats, exposed brick, and original art on the walls. Rocketship may finally have some competition for all those Best Comic Store in Brooklyn awards." The shop is located on the Pintchik-owned stretch that's seen the arrival of a bunch of new businesses in the past few years, including Babeland, Organic Heights and Unnameable Books. Click through for an interior shot.
Bergen Street Comics [Official Site]
Bergen Street Comics Opens In Brooklyn's Park Slope [Geekanerd] GMAP
Continue reading "StreetLevel: Comic Book Shop Opens on Bergen"
December 4, 2008
What's the Oldest Business in Park Slope?
If your answer was prostitution, you're not the only one. This Brooklynian thread tries to chart out the nabe's oldest retail spot. The contenders: Pinchik Hardware on Flatbush, rumored to have been here since the 40s; Smiling Pizza (since the 70s, maybe?); and Neergard Pharmacy's 5th Avenue locale, which seems to have opened in the late 1800s. Jackie's 5th Amendment? Aunt Suzie's? Tarzian? Other ideas?
Photo by jeremoss.
November 19, 2008
Black Friday Becomes Brooklyn Friday
Yep, that's the plan hatched by Borough President Markowitz to get folks to do their holiday shopping close to home. Today, at that retail mecca the Fulton Mall, the Beep, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation and local Business Improvement Districts launch "Shop Brooklyn" (Gowanus Lounge has this, too). The idea is that tourists and locals alike will patronize our businesses, especially those selling made-in-BK wares. There will be some borough-wide discounts, and on Black Friday, the day after Turkey Day, there will be special bonuses (details to come, we hope). Those businesses participating will affix a “Shop Brooklyn” logo in their windows. Another way to shop Brooklyn? Hit The Flea this Sunday and every Sunday in December!
Photo by Laughing Squid.
November 11, 2008
Celebrating the Shoe Repair Shop
Some Brooklynites see the shoe repair shop as a dying institution, replaced by bank branches and cell phone stores. So Brooklyn Based has tracked down the borough's best, extant, cobblers: Yelena in Greenpoint; Express in Boerum Hill; Roman’s in Windsor Terrace, to name a few. Their list continues here. You got nominees? Photo by gkjarvis.
November 3, 2008
Bay Ridge Greenmarket: Popular, Temporary
When Key Food on Third Avenue and 94th Street closed in June, Bay Ridgers lamented the lack of good produce in the hood. But lament turned to joy in October, when a green market opened, and area arugula-eaters could get their fill. Well, hold the joy after all. "Three days before the market opened, an article in The Brooklyn Paper said that come January, the farmers and beekeepers would have to clear out or shut down to make way for a Walgreens drugstore," writes the NY Times. "Michael Hurwitz, director of the city’s Greenmarket program, is hoping to persuade Walgreens to let the farmers stick around. At the same time, a number of local residents have rallied to save the market." David Marangio, a real estate agent, is searching for an alternative space for the farmers. He also happens to be one of the organizers of the Bay Ridge Food Co-op. That endeavor, too, is looking for space.
A Greenmarket, With a Clock Ticking [NY Times]
Photo by eggrollboy.
October 27, 2008
Gourmet Fresh Not So Good for Good Food
The opening of the new food market Gourmet Fresh may have caused some Carroll Gardens residents to celebrate. But for Al Sale, the owner of the 30-year-old Good Food, two doors down, not so much. Turns out not everything there will be either gourmet or fresh. "The arrival of a competing business did not come as a surprise," writes the NY Times. "But Mr. Sale said he had thought that the owners, a local family who previously ran a Key Food in the area, would focus on epicurean items and prepared foods, an expectation that vanished with the arrival of trucks that were also laden with standard items like Coca-Cola." The folks at Gourmet Fresh think their store will bring more business to Mr. Sale, but he's not buying the argument; the store is apparently much snazzier than its older counterpart.
Trouble, Two Doors Down [NY Times]
Photo from A Brooklyn Life.
October 14, 2008
Brooklyn Solves Retail Puzzle
So says the Gotham Gazette, pointing out that we have managed to retain small, indie businesses and still attract the giants, who manage to peacefully co-exist; Home Ec and Ikea can thrive within a couple of miles of each other. The secret, they say, is "promoting a 'my way' kind of thing with its retail sector - big stores and small, chains and independents, ordinary and idiosyncratic, garish and subtle, high end and low, traditional ethnic, cool retail, small handicrafts, hip entertainment, etc. Statistically Brooklyn still looks 'under-retailed' compared to Manhattan, says The Real Deal, since Manhattan has 52.2 square feet of retail space per capita, and Brooklyn has only 10.8. But downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg are starting to compete hard and successfully." We've added 660,000 square feet in retail space in the last year, as opposed to 33,000 square feet in 2006. Nice to see such an optimistic view of the borough. Do you agree with it?
Brooklyn's Retail Boom [Gotham Gazette]
Photo by threecee.
October 7, 2008
Brooklyn's Main Streets Feel the Pain
The trouble on Wall Street isn't just hurting Main Street in middle America, the Daily News finds. Brooklyn's main drags are feeling the pain, too. At a West Indian restaurant on Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy, business has dropped by half, and the sporting goods shop has seen a 75% decline. Merchants on Flatbush Avenue, Brighton Beach Avenue, Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park, and Park Slope's 7th Avenue are lamenting. Even the liquor store business is slowing. "It isn't driving them to drink - yet," says one owner.
Biz Along Brooklyn's Main Thoroughfares Taking a Hit [NY Daily News]
Older Signage on 7th Ave. Photo by mikebny.
September 30, 2008
Bay Ridge Gets Green Market
The disappearance of grocery stores in Brooklyn has caused a lot of consternation among residents, and plenty in Bay Ridge. So folks there will be happy to hear that a green market is opening in the neighborhood; in fact, the market will set up in the parking lot of the former Key Foods at 9408 3rd Avenue, which neighbors fought hard to keep open. Yesterday, Councilman Vincent Gentile held a press conference to announce the arrival of fruit and veggie vendors in the borough's southernmost farmers' market. Alas, The Brooklyn Paper says the market is temporary; the Key Food will turn into a Walgreens by next summer, and probably want their parking lot back.
Veggie Good News for Ridge [Brooklyn Paper]
Bay Ridge Brooklyn. Photo by jokerswildnyc.
September 23, 2008
The Borough of Mom and Pop Shops
Don't let the big-boxification of Red Hook, the Starbucks-like growth of Dunkin' Donuts or the slew of chain shops in our neighborhoods fool you: Mom and Pop stores still reign supreme in Brooklyn, reports the Daily News. They find a pharmacy in Dyker Heights, a Bed-Stuy bookshop and a Cobble Hill hardware store surviving both the mallification of Brooklyn and the rocky economy. These are places where the owners know their patrons' names and real customer service exists (you know, there's an actual informed human to assist you). One thing we've seen is that a major chain can rapidly force nearby commercial rents to increase, as recently happened with the Flatbush Target. Will these Mom and Pops survive as more big guys make their way to Brooklyn?
Brooklyn Loves Its Mom and Pop Shops [NY Daily News]
Photo by bitchcakesny.
September 19, 2008
Fort Greene Bookstore Has Support, Needs Space
What does Fort Greene really need? A bookstore, according to a survey by the Fort Greene Retail Association; some 75 independent bookstores have shuttered their doors since 2000. Now, a 29-year-old Park Slope resident named Jessica Stockton Bagnulo plans to defy the odds and open her own shop there, an endeavor that seems to have the neighborhood summoning community optimism in this time of economic blahs. Bagnulo suffers from a lack of wealthy pals and investors, but not from lack of support. She won a coveted $15,000 prize from Citibank for small businesses, cozied up to other successful indie bookstores in the city and eventually hooked up with the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative, an offshoot of the Fort Greene Retail Association, the NY Times reports. This week, the group threw Bagnulo a party at BAM, replete with Brooklyn's literary stars, donated booze and sushi. So, now that they've got the hype and the pat on the back by Brooklyn's cultural institutions, all they need is the space. Anybody got an affordable storefront to rent?
A Woman Dreams of Opening Bookstore, Defying Trends [NY Times]
A Rainbow of Books. Photo by Dawn Endico.
September 18, 2008
Just Opened: casaBAN
Here's a sneak peak, inside and out, of casaBAN, a recently opened modern and antique furniture store at 397 Tompkins Avenue in Bed Stuy. The owner, Ban Leow, is keeping it open from 11am till 7pm every day and stocking pieces from Keil Hauer, Heller, Roberta Magrini, the Eames and others. If you want to give us a tour of your just opened store, send us a note.
September 2, 2008
Dunkin' Donuts: the Starbucks of Brooklyn
"Despite an influx of hipsters and Manhattanites, moderately priced chain stores outnumber the hoity-toity multi-outlets in Brooklyn," reports the Daily News, basing their assertions on a study released by the Center for an Urban Future earlier this year. We have 1,203 chains in Brooklyn, but many are on the moderate side. There are 89 Dunkin' Donuts in Brooklyn, as compared to only 18 Starbucks, and Brooklyn has more 7-Elevens than any other borough. We also score high in Payless, Jimmy Jazz and Golden Krust stores, and low in Sephora, Pottery Barn and Coach.
Brooklyn Sweeter on Dunkin' Donuts than Starbucks [NY Daily News]
Dunkin' Donuts at Night. Photo by lab2112.
August 11, 2008
Everybody Loves IKEA
Well, that's not exactly true, but the Times reported this weekend that Red Hook neighbors once vehemently opposed to the big box store have learned to appreciate it. They don't love it for its economic development potential, but for its unexpected benefits: cheap hot dogs, free water taxi rides, the patch of grass they added along the waterfront. Those focused on the bigger picture still have some stuff to grumble about: overcrowded city buses, industrial space reserved for retail when we need more shipyards and silence on how many local residents have actually been hired there. At least we have the Swedish meatballs.
Brooklyn Neighbors Admit Big Box Isn't All Bad [NY Times]
IKEA. Photo by Listen Missy!
August 7, 2008
Closing Bell: Happy Fruit Men Everywhere
The Brooklyn Paper reports that all is well at the Brooklyn Heights fruit stand that opened almost a month ago in front of the St. George Hotel—residents were at first more concerned with the legality of the street vendor than the quality of his fruit. Turns out, the owner's free to hawk his cherries there. Meanwhile, Khan, the Park Slope fruit vendor who set up shop about the same time, reports open arms and wallets from neighborhood residents.
Heights Vendor Wants to Make People Happy [Brooklyn Paper]
August 5, 2008
Red Mango Marches Into Court Street Yogurt Wars
Are frozen yogurt shops the new banks? On Court Street, it's looking that way more and more every day. We reported in July that Korean-style froyo maker Yofiore had agreed to pay big bucks for a spot at 32 Court Street and construction at the new Yogo Monster at 115 Court Street is almost done. To top it off, last night we got word from a tipster that Red Mango, a Sherman Oaks, CA.-based yogurt company that claims responsibility for launching the yogurt trend, is slated to open in the small storefront at 125 Court Street. (Not to be outdone, Fort Greene is getting a place called Silver Spoon Yogurt and Park Slope already has a few of its own.) How much frozen yogurt can Brooklynites consume? What happens to these places in the chill of February?
August 1, 2008
DoBro Redevelopment Not So Great for Everyone
Not everybody is profiting off the Downtown Brooklyn boom, according to a recent report. Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) and the Urban Justice Center conducted surveys of 61 small businesses in Downtown Brooklyn over the past year and found 35 have since moved or gone under. Many of the closures were attributed to four large projects &mdash City Point, Al Laboz's planned Willoughby West tower, Stahl Real Estate's 50-story office tower, and the planned Willoughby Square Park &mdash and the decrease in daytime business as office towers were emptied for residential development. Three-quarters of the owners surveyed are immigrants, 64 percent non-white, and 23 percent women.
The report, "Out of Business," points out that Fulton Mall was already one of the city's most successful retail corridors with 100,000 daily shoppers and $100 million in annual sales. In fact, a prominent local broker explained to us that Fulton Mall's retail space is so lucrative that landlords actually removed stairwells and elevators in many of the buildings to create more ground-floor space, which now rents at between $150 and $300 per square foot (we were wondering why all the unsightly boarded-up windows). He said residential and low-end office tenants who would have rented out the upper levels were more troublesome and less lucrative, so landlords simply boarded up the windows and stopped maintaining those floors. FUREE co-director Ilana Berger suggested landlords re-open that less expensive space to small business owners, many who had already been paying prime ground-floor rates, as one way to maintain Fulton Mall's diversity. But she acknowledged that after decades of neglect, renovation would be costly. Berger said she also tried to meet with the City Point developers to help secure space for displaced and aspiring small businesses owners in the tower's 500,000 square feet of planned retail, but was met with disinterest. Click through for stories on some of the businesses profiled in the report, and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership's response...
Continue reading "DoBro Redevelopment Not So Great for Everyone"
July 31, 2008
StreetLevel: Brooklyn Circus Expands in Boerum Hill
The clothing store Brooklyn Circus is expanding in Boerum Hill, but it's not straying too far from its original location. Tomorrow night the store is having an opening party for its new location on the corner of Nevins and Bergen, less than half a block from its original Bergen Street shop (inset). The streetwear retailer opened its original, tiny storefront in 2006, and it plans to keep that space in business while adding more women's clothing to the new shop, a former car service.
Homepage [Brooklyn Circus] GMAP
Sunset Park's Rainbow Cafe Building Officially For Sale
As Best View in Brooklyn reported at the beginning of June, the Rainbow Cafe in Sunset Park closed after the passing of its owner. A reader now tells us the building is on the market, noting, that "it will be interesting to see who takes it over and if it will maintain its bar/restaurant status....Perhaps whoever takes it over will take the first jab at the Park-Slopification of Sunset Park." The building, on 39th Street and 5th Avenue, is listed for $3,250,000. The old cafe space accounts for almost 4,000 square feet of the property, and, as the listing notes, it's a "Sunset Park Neighborhood Landmark."
Rainbow Cafe is Shuttered, For Now [Best View in Brooklyn]
3904 5th Avenue Listing [Loopnet] GMAP
Latest Restaurant Additions
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Le Barricou
added November 20, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Der Schwarze Kölner
added November 19, 2009 12:00 PM in Fort Greene -
Oak Wine Bar & Café
added November 18, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Mr. Wonton
added November 17, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Casa Rosa
added November 16, 2009 12:00 PM in Carroll Gardens -
Cousin John's Café & Bakery
added November 13, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Elote
added November 12, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Miracle Grill
added November 11, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Phoebe's Cafe
added November 10, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Ruthie's
added November 9, 2009 12:00 PM in Clinton Hill, Downtown Brooklyn