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Moscot Opens First Brooklyn Outpost on Court Street
Earlier this week the well-known Manhattan eyewear shop Moscot opened its first Brooklyn location on Court Street between Pacific and Dean. Here’s the official line on the store: “Our new shop incorporates the same unexpected blend of elements that make our Manhattan shops so fun, eclectic, and inviting, including period details from our original MOSCOT shop on the Lower East Side (circa 1930), and vintage pieces sourced from around the world that ensure an authentic historical customer experience.” Click through for a shot of the interior. GMAP (more…)
02/03/2012 12:00 PM
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End of a (Short) Era: Morton’s Closes in Downtown BK
Yesterday afternoon several readers got in touch to let us know that the Downtown Brooklyn location of Morton’s the Steakhouse had shut down, and the news was confirmed by a woman who answered the phone at the restaurant. As the Brooklyn Paper notes, the chain was recently purchased by the Texas-based company Landry’s Inc.. The firm has abruptly closed a few other Morton’s locations, including restaurants in Boston and Atlanta. Here’s what a Landry’s spokeswoman had to say about the Brooklyn shuttering (emphasis ours): “Over time, demographics shift and so do the areas in which businesses thrive and it’s because of this that we must close the Morton’s location in Brooklyn. We will continue to operate Morton’s The Steakhouse in Manhattan on 5th Ave. and White Plains on Maple Ave and look forward to serving our guests at these locations.” Morton’s opened to a great deal of fanfare on Adams Street in late 2008. Does the closing cast a pall on the retail renaissance in Downtown? Not according to a statement from the disinterested parties at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership: “While it is a sad day for Downtown Brooklyn, there is a still a strong appetite for dining options in the district. A dozen restaurants opened in the area in 2011, nine more coming this year, and Downtown Brooklyn property owners get calls daily from eateries interested in space.” Exhibit A: The thriving Shake Shake steps away from the Morton’s location.
Over, Done: Morton’s Closes [BK Paper] GMAP
Photo by Yogma
02/02/2012 9:00 AM
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Triangle Sports Building for Sale
The Journal reports that the Triangle Sports building on Flatbush and 5th Avenue, right across the street from Barclays Center, is for sale. The family-owned store has been in business for nearly 100 years. Its owners cite the economy and “pressure from big-box stores” as reasons for calling it quits, and they’re looking to capitalize on demand for space near the arena. Brokers and other business owners in the area, meanwhile, are talking up how much demand the arena is supposedly generating for commercial space. Here’s what’s going away: “The Flatbush Avenue location of Triangle Sports was an anomaly among small business in the rapidly gentrifying area. It often kept erratic hours and shoppers had to climb a narrow staircase to reach top floors of the shop. But it also had a devoted following of shoppers who liked the customer service and selection of apparel that included Levi’s and Red Wing boots.” And here’s what’s coming: “The retail landscape has been altered throughout the past decade as national chains such as Target and Applebee’s have moved into the Atlantic Center mall along with upscale boutiques on the side streets off Flatbush Avenue. ‘This trend is going to accelerate in a monumental way as we get closer to the arena opening,’ said Timothy King, managing partner with CPEX Real Estate.”
Bowing to Change [WSJ] GMAP
Photo by PropertyShark
01/30/2012 2:40 PM
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Fitness Studio Opens in Former 360 Space in Red Hook
A small gym called Sessions Fit opened a few weeks ago on Van Brunt Street in the space where the acclaimed restaurant 360 used to be (and, more recently, the short-lived Italian restaurant O’ Barone). The studio is offering spinning, boot camp, Pilates and yoga classes for $15 a pop, or $205 for 20-class packs, and personal training sessions for $75 each, or less than that for multiple-session package. The studio is currently offering first-timers a free class. The owner of the business also runs a nonprofit out of the space called N.E.E.D.S. that’s aimed at fighting childhood obesity. On the jump, a photo of the interior.
Sessions Fit [Official Site] GMAP (more…)
01/23/2012 2:00 PM
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A TJ Maxx Will Open on the Fulton Mall
Rumors about a TJ Maxx opening on the Fulton Mall have been swirling around for some time now, and today the Eagle confirms that the retailer is indeed coming to 505 Fulton Street. The property in question is the landmark Offerman Building, which Downtown mega-landlord Al Laboz is renovating and which will have an H&M in an addition that’s currently being built out. (We’d call this the second big tidbit about retail on the mall this week, but we’ve been told yesterday’s buzz about Target signing on for space at CityPoint isn’t true.) Laboz tells the Eagle that the TJ Maxx store will stretch over 23,000 feet on the building’s lower level. The upper floors of the Offerman Building are being converted into residential space.
TJ Maxx Store Coming to Fulton Mall [Eagle]
Offerman rendering via GreenbergFarrow
01/19/2012 9:30 AM
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Can the Fulton Mall Have it Both Ways?
The Observer has a long piece looking at the much-ballyhooed changes to the Fulton Mall that examines whether the new tenants coming to the retail strip—”middlebrow retailers who appeal to both the design and price conscious,” like H&M—will attract “everyone from the blacks who have dominated the mall since it fell into decline decades ago to the white bohemians and businessmen.” The piece is skeptical about whether the new stores and eateries will lure white “brownstone babies”:
“Sure, there is Shake Shack, but besides that, literally and figuratively, the new eateries consist of a barbecue place from Vegas, a candy store called Sugar and Plumm, and a Paneras? These are precisely the kinds of establishments people moved to New York, and now Brooklyn, since they have colonized so much of Manhattan, to get away from. They are fleeing middle American malls, not craving them.”
As is often noted about the Fulton Mall, the street is very much a commercial success as is: The third busiest in the city after Fifth Avenue and Times Square, and the rents are much higher than on Atlantic Avenue or Smith Street.
Will Brooklyn Flock to Fulton Street’s New Chain Stores? [NY Observer]
Photo by onesevenone
01/12/2012 9:32 AM
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Gift Shop Everbrite Mercantile Closing on Van Brunt
The store Everbrite Mercantile Co., which opened a little over a year ago in Red Hook, is calling it quits. (In terms of its bricks-and-mortar operation, anyhow: The business’ website says it will still sell goods over the web and describes the Van Brunt Street store as an “odd retail experiment.”) The shop sold knickknacks, jewelry, clothing and furniture. It’s going to be open today through Sunday, and signs in the window advertise a sale.
Everbrite Mercantile Co. [Official Site]
Everbrite Mercantile Co. Coming to Red Hook [Brownstoner] GMAP
01/11/2012 2:00 PM
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490 Fulton Facade Reaches Completion
The scaffolding has come down at 490 Fulton Street, and the renovation of the Fulton Mall building is looking just about complete (from the outside, anyway). Following the announcement that Filene’s/Sym’s filed for bankruptcy protection, there’s been no word about what’s going to become of the 40,000 square feet the retailer was supposed to take at 490 Fulton, but an Express is slated to open in the building this spring. On the jump, a photo of what the property looked like last fall, before the renovation began.
Fulton Street Filene’s Basement a No-Go? [Brownstoner] (more…)
01/09/2012 2:40 PM
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City Point’s Shiny New Facade Now on Display
The first phase of City Point, the big retail development on the Fulton Mall, is scheduled to open in the spring, and we now have a good sense of how the exterior of the building is going to look. The siding that’s been put on the building is quite a bit shinier than the renderings indicated (click through to see one). There’s still no word on whether an anchor tenant has been secured for the project. This phase of City Point is 50,000 square feet, which is only a tenth as big as the second phase is supposed to be. GMAP (more…)
01/03/2012 12:00 PM
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Walkabout: Brooklyn’s Abraham & Straus
(Photo: Abraham and Straus, 1904. Brooklyn Public Library)
In today’s fragile economy and cultural hurly-burly, holiday shopping has lost its charm and whimsy to price slashing, in your face, heavy duty bargain hunting. Christmas shopping is no longer the time to lovingly and carefully choose the perfect gift for a loved one; it’s a time to knock someone out in order to score a flat screen television for a bargain basement price, and make a profit for cash starved retailers. When I was a child, (dinosaur alert!) the classic hunt for a perfect present for a parent or sibling took place in a department store, one of those magical places where a child would be enraptured by what seemed to be an immense store full of glittery and bright Christmas decorations, fanciful wrapped boxes of presents stacked everywhere, and Santa Claus in the toy department. All amidst departments that sold anything you could possibly imagine, staffed by kind people who were there to make your dreams come true. This was true even in the small town I grew up in, where the stores were not really immense by any stretch of the imagination, but nowhere was it more true than in New York City. (more…)
12/13/2011 10:30 AM
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Carroll Gardens Barbershop Opening Burg Location
Persons of Interest, the barbershop that opened on Smith Street about a year ago, is going to have a second storefront in Williamsburg. The new digs will be on Havemeyer at Metropolitan. GMAP
11/28/2011 2:00 PM
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New Women’s Boutique Open on Court Street
Pink Pepper, a women’s boutique, has opened at 201 Court Street between Bergen and Wyckoff. It’s the first retail venture for owner Nicola Salky-Johnson, who describes the clothing for sale as contemporary, and says the offerings run the gamut from t-shirts to cocktail dresses. Prices go from around $50 up to $400. On the jump, a shot of the interior. GMAP (more…)
11/21/2011 2:00 PM
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Flor, Modular Carpet Tile Maker, Opening on Atlantic
Flor, a company that makes modular carpet tiles, is opening a new store at 307 Atlantic Avenue, between Smith and Hoyt, this evening. The business, which used to only do online and catalog sales, opened a flagship in Soho earlier this year. The opening party is tonight, you can RSVP here.
Flor [Official Site] GMAP
11/17/2011 2:00 PM
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Surf’s Up on North 3rd Street
A reader got in touch to ask whether there was news about doings in a ground-floor space on North 3rd and Wythe, a storefront that has sat empty for awhile but is now being renovated. Turns out it will be the new home of Mollusk Surf Shop, one of the former Monster Island tenants. According to the surfing gear’s blog, the shop may open sometime this month. GMAP
11/03/2011 2:00 PM
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Fulton Street Filene’s Basement a No-Go?
It’s looking like plans for a 40,000-square-foot Filene’s Basement/Syms on the Fulton Mall may not be realized. Yesterday Syms and Filene’s filed for bankruptcy protection, saying stock would be liquidated and nearly 50 stores would close. The Downtown Brooklyn outpost of the retailer was supposed to open early next year at 490 Fulton Street, a building that Crown Acquisitions bought for more than $60 million in 2010 and has been gut renovating. Obviously this is not great news for Fulton Street, since it means another big vacancy for the corridor at a time when quite a bit more retail space is appearing in the form of CityPoint, which has yet to make an announcement about any tenants. The most recent news about 490 Fulton was that Express has signed a lease for a 10,000-square-foot store in the building. GMAP
11/03/2011 9:00 AM
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Area Kids Coming to Fort Greene
Area Kids, the local children’s toy and clothing chain, is opening its next location on Fulton Street in Fort Greene. According to Loretta Gendville, the store’s owner, it will be the ninth Area Kids. The storefront, at 741 Fulton between South Elliott and South Portland, used to be home to Supernova Boutique. GMAP
10/24/2011 2:00 PM
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Tio Pio the Latest Victim of Cursed Downtown Corner
Why are businesses having such a tough time making a go of it at 117 Court Street, on the corner of State? Maybe because the rent’s too damn high, according to a tipster who passes on word this morning that the building’s current tenant, Tio Pio, is moving out. The restaurant opened in December and now follows a couple of other businesses, Danny’s and F. Martinella’s, in not lasting very long in the space. Thoughts on what might have more staying power here? Update, 10/24/11: Tio Pio’s owner got in touch to say that while changes to the business are in the works, there are no plans to close at present.
Tio Pio Open [Brownstoner] GMAP
10/21/2011 12:00 PM
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PetSmart Opening Soon on Atlantic Avenue
The big PetSmart going into one of the retail spaces at 225 Pacific, the condo development on the corner of Boerum Place and Atlantic Avenue, looks like it’s going to be in business soon. As of this weekend workers were setting up shelves in the shopping aisles, and a reader noticed that PetSmart’s website says the grand opening will be on November 12th.
Dog Days for Atlantic Ave [Brownstoner] GMAP
10/19/2011 2:00 PM
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490 Fulton Street Gets Glassy
The transformation of 490 Fulton Street continues apace, with new glass windows being installed. (Check out a close-up shot after the jump.) A Filene’s Basement/Syms hybrid and Express are already lined up to lease space in the building.
Express is Joining the Fulton Street Ranks [Brownstoner] GMAP
(more…)
09/29/2011 2:42 PM
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Is This What the ‘Walmartization of NYC’ Would Look Like?
As far as attention-grabbing reports go, Alliance for a Greater New York’s “Walmartization of NY” is a doozy: The organization finds Walmart would have to open 159 stores in New York in order to replicate its average share of the grocery market nationally. The report projects that Brooklyn would have the most Walmarts of the five boroughs, with 48 stores. Three of those stores would be superstores, 10 would be Walmart Markets, and 35 would be Walmart Express stores. The point of the study? “Our estimates show these 159 stores would drive out nearly 4,000 net retail jobs and result in a loss of over $353 million in total wages a year for all remaining retail workers. In fact, our analysis shows that one Walmart Supercenter in East New York alone could cause 105 surrounding businesses to close.” (Speaking of East New York, there’s still no word on whether the store there is a done deal yet.) Walmart’s reaction to the study: “‘The special interests today issued what amounts to a fairy tale press release that’s billed as a study, I guess in hopes of scaring residents,’ said [spokesman] Steven Restivo. Walmart countered with its own numbers on Tuesday, claiming city residents were on track to spend 10 percent more at Walmarts located outside of the five boroughs in 2011 than in 2010.”
The Walmartization of NY [ALIGN NY; PDF]
Opponents Say Superstore Wants To Open Dozens Of NYC Outlets [NY1]
159 City Walmarts? [NY Daily News]
09/22/2011 9:30 AM
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Feb 09, 2012 | 11:02 AM