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.
If you think the rent on 7th avenue is comparable to the rent on broadway I would suggest you are not too knowledgable about commercial rents in the city, perhaps you should stick to something you know about?
12:50 – The landlords are not fools! Back in 2001 when the tea lounge signed the lease the market rate for that store was around $35 per sq foot. Now its over $75 per sq foot (closer to $100/sq foot in north slope). I am sure the store will not stay vacant for too long.
I own a building in 5th ave north slope. leased out the store at $15/sq foot back in 1997. The lease is almost up and corcoran real estate priced the store at $75/sq foot.
If you get $1000 per month in rent and someone offers you $5000 when the lease is up…im sure you will not hasitate to take it.
I agree…there are a lot of foolish landlords on 7th. There was a thread some time ago on the Park Slope message boards, where one of the shadier landlord, Nicholas Kotsonis chimed in to say that because of some fishy tax thing, landlords can actually make MORE money by keeping the storefronts vacant than they can by renting them out.
Someone needs to fix that loophole, and these problems would not continue.
There are SO many businesses (interesting ones, at that) who would love to set up shop on 7th, but can not afford the rents.
And the rents are not in line with the amount of foot traffic, so it’s a real problem. This is a nice part of Broolyn, but it ain’t Manhattan. You can’t charge Broadway rents on 7th Ave in the Slope.
Lots of these old time landlords in Park Slope like Berman, Kotsonis, etc own a ton of property still, so hopefully as the younger generation takes over, we will see more and more turnover.
“You’d have to be an idiot to open a business without buying the building”
Speaking of idiots.
The 7th Avenue landlords are the fools. More empty storefronts, just what 7th avenue needs.
This place always depressed me. How about a nice, sleek modern coffee lounge somewhere on 7th. Not with grandma’s couches and babies screaming. How about a gorilla?
They could start charging a valley fee for stroller parking.
the owners sound like fools…the last quote of the article…”we’d have to sell a cup of coffee to everyone in the borough to afford the rent”
really?? so the rent is 5 million dollars a month?
exaggeration is not helpful in situations like this.
perhaps now they can spend some money on the union street location making it not look so freakin shabby. that place is a bedbug infestation waiting to happen and the awning is faded and shabby.
i say go to ozzie’s.
and btw, very few things below 9th are national chains or bank branches. it’s silly to even suggest that. i’d say 90% of storefronts below 9th are mom and pop-ish or small nyc based chains like union market.
and the korean deli which sells plants around 12th is one of the best places to buy plants anywhere around!!!
those other locations are cash cows. they could pay the rent money if they wanted to