Slippery Slope: Two Down on 7th Ave.
The big news in Slopeland today is that Tea Lounge is closing its location on 7th Avenue. The coffeehouse is calling it quits because its landlord wants to double its rent, according to a story in the Brooklyn Paper. Tea Lounge opened on 7th Ave. and 10th Street in 2001. The business isn’t the only…
The big news in Slopeland today is that Tea Lounge is closing its location on 7th Avenue. The coffeehouse is calling it quits because its landlord wants to double its rent, according to a story in the Brooklyn Paper. Tea Lounge opened on 7th Ave. and 10th Street in 2001. The business isn’t the only one saying sayanora to the South Slope: five blocks down, the crafts store Greenjeans is also clearing out. According to a post on the shop’s blog, the sustainable-wares store is “in the process of looking for a new location that will provide us with more space, more foot traffic, and greater accessibility.” Greenjeans has occupied a storefront on 7th Avenue between 15th and 16th streets for a little over three years, and it’s going to keep selling stuff through its website and at the Flea until it finds a new bricks-and-mortar location.
Tea Lounge to close in July! [Brooklyn Paper]
Greenjeans is Moving [Greenjeans]
Photo of Tea Lounge from Tea Muse.
2:14 – if the new rent is double (or 50% or even 25% more) than the old rent – it doesnt take all that long to make up for the lost rent due to vacancy.
People are very very strange – why all the LL bashing???
When the owners of Tea Lounge (or any other retail establishment) start charging significantly below market prices for their products, then maybe the LLs would be up for attack.
But when I go into Tea Lounge, it seems they are charging on the high end for their coffee – yet few jump up and down and call the owner names – even though for years he has had the advantage of below market rent (and above market coffee prices)
Are you people too thick headed to see this?????
And BTW – there is NO tax advantage to keeping a retail store vacant, but since retail tenants generally want long-term leases (rightfully b/c who wants to invest tens of thousands of $ into a business that could be evicted in 2yrs) – it can sometimes make sense to hold a store vacant until a real good tenant comes along – as opposed to renting it at a discount and having to live with that discount for a decade or more.
That being said – no reason they couldnt lower rents for the short-term and then have built in escalations if the retail business is thriving.
2:14, by that logic, we should say that homeowners selling in Park Slope should be asking more “reasonable” prices that are not so drastically increased from 1998. A landlord could argue that those who had 10 year leases got a very sweet deal in the last few years. What have home prices done in the last 10 years in Park Slope, quadrupled at least? I agree it makes sense to try not to price a current, reliable longstanding tenant out, but it’s also understandable to consider risking lost income for a few months in order to hope for a significantly higher rent from another lessee.
2:18 a bit melodramatic?
Of course the landlord should raise the rent. But a sensible one is not going to raise it so much as to lose a tenant while more and more nearby storefronts sit empty.
The empty Red Hot Szechuan and Tea Lounge will stand as twin sentinels on the South Slope side of 7th Avenue: Abandon all hope ye who set up shop here.
To 2:03 pm. I bought the store from the previous landlord/occupant so my current tenant is the first. I thought aoubt the NY times but have you ever tried to do their commercial search. Not particularly user friendly… It took us about 1 year to rent out the space, including the lease negotiation period.
2:08, he/she didnt suggest the landlord should not raise the rent at all.
the landlord should have made a more reasonable rent increase. Would you rather keep a long-standing tenant or risk losing income for several months?
I hope that all those great stores on 7th will move down to 5th! Send more dunkin donuts and subways to 7th (they are the only one’s who would be able to afford the rent).
Ill gladly rent my 5th ave store to a cool mom and pop shop!
2:04 you’re kidding right? A commercial lease is often for ten years. You think the landlord shouldn’t raise the rent after ten years??