Forum Archive

A couple of days ago the mystery was revealed: the new tenant in the space occupied for years by beloved local video rental store Video Edge is gonna be…ta da! T-Mobile.

Just what we need! Mr. Won Ton is ecstatic that he now has five choices of mobile phone stores within a five minute stroll of his front door–who needs a butcher when you’ve got extra minutes?

The scuttlebutt at the recent North Flatbush Avenue BID meeting is that T-Mobile is paying $29,000 a month rent on this sucker, or about four times what Video Edge had to cough up.

(Mr. WonTon misses Andy and Rommel of VE…who had such great taste, not to mention a massive collection of his favorite old skool martial arts flicks.)

My $29,000 question is: How is it that T-Mobile can afford to do business on Flatbush and 7th with such high overhead?

Answer (from my local real estate guy): They’re bad, they’re nationwide! They don’t have to make a profit in this location. “It’s all about placement. They pay for the visibility.”

Hmmm. I guess that’s why American Apparel is able to keep going in our old Plaza Twin Cinema by selling a couple of t-shirts a day.

Lots of empty storefronts sitting for a l-o-n-g time on North Flatbush these days…greedy landlords hoping to cash in on the big box store tip, I guess. Hey, we still don’t have a Starbucks!