High Rents Killing Montague Street
With a high concentration of wealthy residents and plenty of nearby businesses, Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights should be a vibrant retail strip but it appears to be a victim of its own overinflated sense of self-worth: Eight storefronts on the five-block stretch are now vacant, victims, The Daily News reports, of too-high rents. “The…
With a high concentration of wealthy residents and plenty of nearby businesses, Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights should be a vibrant retail strip but it appears to be a victim of its own overinflated sense of self-worth: Eight storefronts on the five-block stretch are now vacant, victims, The Daily News reports, of too-high rents. “The common denominator is high rent,” said the Brooklyn Heights Association’s Judy Stanton. “Little businesses will come here if they think they can make a profit, but it handicaps itself with the high rent.” Recent casualties include Heights Books (which is moving to Smith Street), Blue Rose and Spicy Pickle, which by all accounts wasn’t any good anyway. Do you think landlords are going to get a clue?
Montague Street Hitting the Wall [NY Daily News]
Photo by tosca2002
Danny Noonan, There was a fantastic old world restaurant on Montague Street called Foffes (155 I believe). All the judges would have lunch there and Meade Esposito would hold court at a table in the back. They would have a wild game dinner every holiday season that people came from all over NYC to attend. It had great real food, professional union waiters. Think it opened in the 30’s and closed in the early 90’s. I was heart broken.
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL REPORT: (sorry for the off topic-ness of this post, but just thought we could all use a bit of less bad news)
Stocks are rising after troubled Citigroup said it operated at a profit during the first two months of the year.
The Citi chief executive Vikram S. Pandit said the bank had an operating profit of $8.3 billion before taxes and special items through February. Word of the bank’s performance is breaking, at least for the moment, a torrent of bad news from the banking industry that has pounded financial stocks and in turn, the overall market.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke is calling for a revamp of the country’s financial regulatory system.
At 11 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was up 249 points or 3.9 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 4.2 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index was 4.6 percent higher.
this is alittle off topic but when I was going to college in raleigh, NC there was a starbucks on the main stretch of businesses across from campus. It went out of business and was replaced by a hookah bar/coffee shop.
best business turnover ever.
Danny Noonan, great point. I don’t understand it either. I tried to go to Noodle Pudding a couple of Fridays ago and could barely squeeze in the door. It was 9pm. Forget about trying to get past the crowd to ask about the wait, there was no way it was happening. Le Petit Marche (ended up there) and Henry’s End were also crowded. Don’t understand why a similar restaurant doesn’t open on Montague.
We are in our 30s and no kids yet and live a block from Montague street. I think we’d go out during the week way more often if there were places to go. That’s why the Tea Lounge thing is particularly exciting. When we have friends over we almost always take them to Jack the Horse or one of the places on Henry in the ruit street area or go up to Smith/Court street. Inevitably such friends ask why don’t we go out on Montague b/c it’s right there – but most of the places are unappetizing or not suited for just having a drink. The only stores I shop in there are Tango (which is pricey but has all of the jeans and T Shirt basics that I’d otherwise need to hike to SoHo for) and the hardware store.
Christopher, Thanks for writing the note to Hannible that I was about to write. Can’t think of any “hippie” businesses ever on Montague St. I lived just off the street for 32 years and the big change was driven by the lunch business. It went from neighborhood services, to lunch time outlets for the courts, Bklyn Union Gas, Banks, etc. This drove the rents up and brought national chains. I picketed the Burger King opening in the 70s.
In all the years I lived over in that area (I lived on Remsen St. for several years before Schermerhorn-Christopher remembers what was there pretty accurately, and there was always turnover.I worked for an antique store that was on Montague- we used to wonder why businesses didn’t do so much better. The storeowner said most neighborhood residents worked in Manhattan and shopped there. Biggest business was the lunch crowd from the courts and office buildings, and a rush as workers came back home. Sure enough- between 6 and 7 there would be a small rush, weekends were slow.
I think there’s always been a problem with Montague St. not being as commercially successful as it could be. It’s more of a convenience for the neighborhood, but not a destination.
who the hell uses the word “hippie” these days?
I worked on Montague for years. The restaurants do brisk lunch business but dinners are very slow. They cater to all the lawyers that work in the area COURTHOUSE.
The neighborhood is very beautiful but also very dry. I do like the comparison to upper Madison avenue.
hannible- Why are you always so grumpy? Did a real estate agent drop a house on your sister?