Blue Marble Flagship Store To Close
The rising rents of Atlantic Avenue have claimed another victim: Blue Marble Ice Cream, whose flagship store opened at 420 Atlantic Avenue back in 2007, will be moving out in the coming weeks, a result of the landlord’s efforts to raise the rent. “We’re very sad to leave the neighborhood, especially since this was shop…
The rising rents of Atlantic Avenue have claimed another victim: Blue Marble Ice Cream, whose flagship store opened at 420 Atlantic Avenue back in 2007, will be moving out in the coming weeks, a result of the landlord’s efforts to raise the rent. “We’re very sad to leave the neighborhood, especially since this was shop our ‘first-born,'” said founder Alexis Miesen in an email, “but we were left with no alternative.” Ice cream fanatics need not totally despair though: Blue Marble’s other stores on Court and Underhill are going strong—and you can always get a scoop at The Flea on Saturdays! You can see the $3,500-a-month listing for the new space here, though, from what we hear, 900 square feet might be overstating the case a bit.
What?!?!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo….. 🙁
Here in China they used to parade landlords in the streets before killing them.
They now sell Blue Marble ice cream in pints at Union Market, for what it’s worth.
Also, I know some people are skeptical, but Atlantic Avenue has become an increasingly attractive retail corridor. I’m disappointed to hear that this place is closing (although the store on Court really isn’t that far away) but I have some insider info about some quite high end retailers like Jack Spade, Kate Spade, Magnolia Bakery and Burberry Brit interested in space on Atlantic.
Now whether any of those (or others) comes to fruition is a totally different story, but if this greedy landlord senses that anything like that might be in the pipeline, you can see how he’s been tempted.
Honestly, I kinda hope it sits vacant, because they have been such nice tenants and that was a really lovely space for them, especially with the garden.
I go to the one on Underhill though.
DIBS, with exception of 1 out of 5 leases, personal guarantees were required. the exception was on some low traffic side street vs the others were high traffic commercial spots landlord could’ve rented to a big corporation. I surmise that’s the difference – spot good enough for big corporation, LL asks individuals for guarantee
Hmmm. I read this completely differently. I think 3500 seems reasonable. 2000 would been damn cheap. They must have been making money hand over fist. Now that blue marble has got other locations, including the brooklyn bridge park consession which will be a cash cow, I think they are simplifying. Smart but lame to play the landord is evil card.
No DIBS, he had to buy all that stuff from vendors and they all said he had no track record so the only way they’d sell it to him was if he personally guaranteed it. They were opening a cafe so it involved a bunch of fairly expensive equipment. Worst part was, his business partner had promised to share the cost but didn’t sign the guarantees so my friend ended up having to pay it all off.
You can have a commercial lease and also a personal guarantee. It all depends on the bargaining strength of the parties.
I always wonder at the wisdom of landlords who price out their tenants and then sit with an empty space on their hands. In this economy that makes no sense. And it does nothing for the neighborhood.
Standard to get a personal guarantee for the 1st year on a small commercial (no-chain) lease.