Shopping
May 12, 2008
StreetLevel: Beers and Blowouts Coming to North 7th
Two well-loved NYC businesses are setting up shop right next door to each other on North 7th Street in Williamsburg. At 113 North 7th, which is between Berry and Whythe, East Village bar d.b.a. just signed a lease for its first Brooklyn outpost (there's one in New Orleans, as well). One of d.b.a.'s owners says the bar, which is known for its extensive beer selection, should be up and running in the Burg by the end of next month. Meanwhile, next door at 115 North 7th, The Beehive Salon, late of Lorimer Street, will be opening its new location this coming weekend. The salon's employees say they were booted out of their old salon because "it's being turned into condos." Beehive has made it onto "best-of" lists in the Voice, L magazine, and Citysearch. GMAP
Will IKEA Be a Traffic Nightmare for Red Hook?
Today's NY Post has a story that looks at the measures being taken to mitigate the car and people traffic that some believe is going to overwhelm Red Hook when the home-furnishings giant opens next month. First off, there's going to be a free Water Taxi running between Lower Manhattan and IKEA every 40 minutes when the store is open. Second, the MTA is extending the B61 and B77 bus lines so they stop directly in front of the store, and IKEA is going to offer a free shuttle between the Borough Hall/Court Street, Smith/9th Street, and 4th Avenue/9th Street subway stops every 10 minutes. The closest subway stop to IKEA, Smith/9th, is more than a mile away from the store. The retailer built 1,400 parking spots and expects 14,000 cars to flock to the store every Saturday. John McGettrick, co-chair of the Red Hook Civic Alliance, believes that number is going to be closer to 20,000, and he says the traffic is going to sink Red Hook's character. "There's been no IKEA in this country ever put in a situation like this; most others like the ones in Elizabeth and Paramus in New Jersey have direct access off highways," says McGettrick. "This is on a tiny peninsula that is basically a dead end."
IKEA Goes to Se-a in Red Hook [NY Post]
Photo by marko boni.
May 5, 2008
Broker Dreams Of Outlet Shopping At Revere Site
Good brokers don't just sell property, they sell a vision, especially when dealing with raw land or an area on the cusp of change. Red Hook might have missed this past gentrification wave but the sleepy neighborhood of 11,000 will no doubt be flooded with shoppers once IKEA opens June 18. Change is inevitable, considering IKEA openings in far less dense cities have caused deadly stampedes, rendered stoplights useless and clogged expressways so badly desperate shoppers simply parked and hopped the fence (things calmed down after awhile). Some people try to push back the tides of change, others surf on them. Massey Knakal director of sales Landon McGaw told us he thinks the neighborhood is ripe for an outlet mall and said Thor Equities' Revere Sugar Refinery site would be the perfect location. The refinery has been demolished, leaving a huge waterfront lot between Fairway Market and IKEA that allows 1.3 million square feet of development, according to Property Shark. "There's no outlet shopping in all of New York City," said McGaw, adding that he has a direct line to one of the nation's most prolific outlet shopping mall owners and knows developers here who have been mulling the idea. "Vorando, Related [Companies], they all have their eye on Red Hook." Just think, one day you could outfit your entire life for rock-bottom prices by visiting Red Hook's waterfront: Nab your pre-fab dining room set and bold curtins at IKEA; last season's J Crew khakis at Revere Outlet Mall; and gourmet fare at Fairway. See how Thor Equities responded after the jump...
Continue reading "Broker Dreams Of Outlet Shopping At Revere Site"
April 18, 2008
Front Page Forum: Used Office Furniture in Brooklyn?
We're in the process of moving into a new office space (more on that later) and so our thoughts have turned to things like file cabinets and conference tables. Any recommendations for good used stuff?
February 26, 2008
StreetLevel: Kids Clothes and Adult Toys for Bergen Street
Over the past few years, Bergen between Flatbush and Fifth Avenue has become one of Park Slope’s most vibrant shopping strips, with an independent bookstore, several eateries and a couple of clothing shops. Now two more retailers are about to call the street home. Within the next several months both kiddie-centric Gymboree and adult-centric Toys in Babeland will be opening stores on Bergen, according to Matthew Pintchik. Pintchik is one of the owners of Pintchik Hardware, and his family has invested in the area since 1912. Gymboree will temporarily take the space at the front of Pintchik Hardware on Flatbush and Bergen before it moves into its permanent digs further down the street. Pintchik says that Gymboree’s temporary location is still on the market, and his family is in talks with a number of national retailers who are considering leasing the storefront, including big boys like McDonald’s. “We’re not ruling out anyone at this point, though we’ve been trying to create a community with the stores that have leased space on Bergen,” says Pintchik. “Trader Joe’s, please call me up.”
Streetlevel: Organic Café Coming to Bustling Bergen [Brownstoner] GMAP
January 23, 2008
Who You Gonna Call?
Brooklyn Based has compiled a neat list of its picks for some of the best repairmen and service businesses in Brooklyn. BB’s recommendations were culled, in part, from comments on a bunch of different websites (including Brownstoner), and the list is still a work in progress (bring on the feedback). Some of the recommended businesses include: Bicycle Station in Prospect Heights for bike repairs, Vego for carpentry, John Hlad Plumbing and Heating for plumbing, and The Lamp Warehouse for lighting repairs. Check out the full list here.
The Fix-It List [Brooklyn Based]
Photo from citynoise.
January 11, 2008
DOB Rejects Latest Whole Foods Plan
The Gowanus Whole Foods plan seems to be alive and kicking, but it’s having a tough time passing muster with the DOB. On Wednesday the department rejected the grocer’s latest filing to proceed with construction. Although the rejection is undeniably a setback for WF (and it’s not the first time their plans have been given the thumbs-down), it seems to us like proof positive that the supermarket is going to keep pushing until it gets an OK to build. Agree it's only a matter of time?
Closing Bell: Whole Foods Fence Saga Continues [Brownstoner] GMAP
Rumblings at Gowanus Whole Foods Site [Brownstoner] DOB
Poll: People Generally Psyched For Whole Foods [Brownstoner]
January 3, 2008
Retail Troubles at Schaefer Landing
A business that was supposed to serve Williamsburg’s Schaefer Landing seems all washed up. The photo of the eviction notice above, which is taped to a Schaefer Landing storefront, comes via a tipster who writes that “The tenant, Aphrodite Cleaners, has never moved in - doesn't appear to have done any work on the place, and is now being served with eviction papers. So far, there is no retail at Schaeffer that I know of.” Far as we know, the main, 9,500-square-foot retail space at Schaefer is still on the market; more than a year ago, the project’s original brokers said they wanted to rent it to a supermarket. The apparent loss of the dry cleaning company comes as the development faces four months without water taxi service, an amenity that Shaefer’s developers say was an important marketing tool for the condo. “It played a big role in closing a lot of our deals,” BFC Partners principal/Schaefer developer Donald A. Capoccia told the Times.
What Is Up With Schaefer Landing? [Brownstoner] GMAP
December 24, 2007
Fulton Mall ‘Mallification’ Inevitable?
Yesterday the Times had a loving portrait of the Fulton Mall, “a chaotic throwback to the era before the sanitization and, yes, mallification of New York City’s retail districts.” The article examines how the thoroughfare stays successful (it sees more than 100,000 shoppers each day) by catering to working-class minorities. Despite the fact that retail rents at the Fulton Mall are extremely high, the commercial strip still boasts plenty of mom-and-pop shops and a dearth of big national retailers. That may not be case for much longer, according to Downtown Brooklyn Partnership prez Joseph Chan. “With all the housing stock that we have now and the demographics in the communities that surround Downtown Brooklyn, the fact that there’s not a Bed Bath & Beyond, a Pottery Barn, a Pier 1 in the downtown of a city of 2.5 million people is odd,” says Chan. He argues that more chain stores won’t necessarily mean the end of the Fulton Mall as we know it: “Having greater retail diversity means having more choices. It doesn’t mean eliminating what’s there today. The reality is it’s never going to be all or nothing.”
Step Right Up! Brooklyn Mall Is Oasis and Anomaly [NY Times]
Photo by johnkay1.
December 19, 2007
Update on the Smith: Retail, Move-Ins Coming
The end (beginning?) is in sight for the much-delayed hotel/condo project the Smith, and the building's ground-floor retail spaces have just hit the market. For over a year the development's marketers have said the space will probably be filled by a high-end grocer like Gourmet Garage or Dean & Deluca, and the broker in charge of leasing the space says that's still true. "We're hoping to get something like a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's," says Petar Videv of A&I Broadway Realty, apparently unaware of the latter's plans just up the block. Videv says construction on the project should be finished sometime in January, and that the hotel and condo are expected to open then. While it seems doubtful that Trader Joe's would take space so close to its planned store at Atlantic and Court, or that Whole Foods would be satisfied with 7,800 square feet, it does seem to be a reasonable fit for a store like Gourmet Garage. What would you like to see here?
The Latest On The Smith [Brownstoner] GMAP
Rats Be Damned, The Smith Resumes Work [Brownstoner]
75 Smith Listing [A&I Broadway Realty]