Some sad but not surprising news coming out of the Lower East Side this morning. BoweryBoogie has an exclusive that the Streit's Matzo Factory, which has anchored the corner of Rivington and Suffolk since 1925, is in contract, and will close at the conclusion of this year's Passover baking season.
The fifth-generation family members broke the news to employees yesterday.
The dispatch comes via filmmaker Michael Levine, who has spent a better part of two years at the factory for his upcoming documentary, "Streit’s Matzo and the American Dream."
Per Levine at BoweryBoogie:
I personally know that this was an agonizing decision for the Streit family, who despite their many challenges, were determined to keep the factory and its workers employed onsite, even as the phone rang daily with offers from developers clamoring to purchase the valuable real estate. I watched as they turned down offer after offer, until the challenges of maintaining a manufacturing business in a drastically changing Lower East Side, as well as the pressures of increased foreign competition, left the company no alternative but to accept.
News of a possible sale surfaced back in December 2007, when Curbed reported that the space hit the market for $25 million.
As Curbed noted at the time:
The matzo business itself is moving, and the 104' x 100' lot is free to be converted or (ack!) torn down by whatever developer is lucky enough to snag it ... from what we hear, conversion will be very difficult due to the state of the 47,500-square-foot building's interior. With a "community facility bonus," a new structure could be built up to 67,600 square feet.
There's no word just yet on who the new owner is (Ben Shaoul is always a good guess).
As for Streit's, the family hopes to "find a new home for the factory and as many of their workers as possible, though no site has been chosen."
Read the whole BoweryBoogie post here.
so, what, will matzohs be imported from china?
ReplyDeletei hope they do find a new home, somewhere.
I-)
"Streit’s Matzo and the American Dream" turned out to be a pretty apt title for the state of the American Dream in 2015.
ReplyDeleteThey have been keeping very random hours of late. Devastated, but not surprised.
ReplyDeleteWhat a disgrace.
ReplyDeleteNot surprised either. We used to go there as kids in the 50's. I remember being handed warm matzoh thru a window next to the sidewalk. Indelible memory.
ReplyDeleteAnd BTW, the import market mentioned would be Israel, not China.
This makes me sad. Streit's is a huge fixture of the LES and to tear down this factory for ANOTHER condo, hotel, club, restaurant is a disgrace! When will any of the city's character be left alone?!?!
ReplyDeleteSad, but at these real estate values it simply does not make any sense to produce anything in Manhattan. A small wonder that it was around for that long.
ReplyDeleteplease silence all the jeremiah-ing. they already have a factory in NJ. They will continue to do well, and move the production there. The logisitical realities of any food business make profitable large scale production impossible in dense urban areas. they dont deliver flour by horse and buggy anymore, you know?
ReplyDeleteSomething just isn't kosher about all of this (pun intended.) The only question now is when will the bubble burst? It was announced today the average NY apartment price is at a record high $1.7 million. But with the Ruble crashing and the Euro collapsing/Greece imploding, there will be fewer of those absentee investors coming into the market now, many will probably want to liquidate, and the expats are just watching their money disappear.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand real estate in Moscow just got really cheap so maybe it's time for everyone to buy a bearskin hat and brush up on their vodka drinkng skills. Za vas!
Manhattan is just not affordable for anything. Even if it's a matter of demographics. Any small start-up business (beyond a restaurant or bar) is just not possible here anymore. I'm waiting for the real estate and bro bust. But not too optimistic. As comfort food, we do have the Tenement Museum as a reminder.
ReplyDeleteHey Giovanni,
ReplyDeleteThe international 1% will continue to invest in NY RE if this Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate survey is accurate.
From today's Reuters Business Insider:
New York City Is The Hottest Real Estate Market In The World
New York City regained its top position among global commercial real estate buyers, unseating London and highlighting the appeal of U.S. properties in general, according to a survey of international investors released Tuesday.
More than 90 percent of respondents said they planned to maintain or increase the size of their U.S. portfolio in 2015, according to the survey conducted by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate...
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-nyc-grabs-back-top-spot-for-global-property-investors-2015-1
Its virtually impossible to run this type of business in NYC anymore. Funny how the horrible business climate in NYC never gets mentioned. Its always some developers fault. Never the city and its onerous taxes/regulations etc. Amazing they were in this location as long as they were. Good for them for cashing in. Maybe they can expand in NJ and the employees can keep their jobs.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the real estate bubble goes- its just a matter of time. Russia/China are slowing, the NYPD is less aggressive, and liberal anti-cop, anti-business, anti-white Bill D is the Mayor. The perfect storm is brewing. Soon the real estate market will crash hard and the city's economy will dive as well thanks to decreased tourism and foreign investment. Time to get ready to buy the apt you always wanted.
Giovanni - it will never end, Congress just passed a bill that puts derivatives under the FDIC and the taxpayer. You got other central banks performing QE. They will keep shuffling the negative off to the 3rd world until there is a massive landslide off the east coast resulting in 100 foot tsunamis. (I read a book over xmas about this)
ReplyDeleteI'm not suggesting rolling over and giving up the good fight but there is no way to stop a privately owned business/property from being sold no matter how "culturally important" that business is. Time, fashion, taste and priorities keep evolving and there is no stopping it. Fight to keep public land which we all are part owners of from being sold off to private developers because when parks, schools and other city own spaces are given away we are really screwed.
ReplyDeleteWell at least one big developer thinks we are in a bubble that's about to burst:
ReplyDeleteTop developer says New York real estate market is a ‘bubble’
A prominent real estate bigwig caused a stir Thursday by admitting that the New York City residential property market is a big bubble waiting to pop.
"If real estate was a publicly traded company and I could short its stock, I would very happily short 57th Street," said Ofer Yardeni, CEO at real estate development firm Stonehenge Partners, referring to the stream of high-end towers popping up along 57th St.'s “Billionaires' Row.”
“The market there has stopped," he said. "It hasn't just declined 5% or 10%. It's just stopped.”
Yardeni, whose company has New York real estate assets worth over $2 billion, said the top end of the Manhattan residential market is starting to look extremely frothy. Developers are building large amounts of uber-luxury apartments, he said, but no one is really sure if there are enough foreign high net worth individuals out there to buy them.
Indeed, data shows that there is an enormous slew of new development geared towards the 1%. New-development marketing firm Corcoran Sunshine projects that nearly 7,000 new luxury condo units, priced at $2,300 a square foot or above, will debut between now and 2016, according to data provided to the Daily News.
“How many people are there in the world that can afford to pay $20 million or $25 million for an apartment?,” Yardeni said, speaking at the New York City Real Estate Expo at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown. “Developers expect a buyer to buy it and not even live there. This is not sustainable. If you can't find a buyer for a home that's 5,000 square feet, you can't just chop it up into smaller apartments for people that can afford them. You are gone.”
Yardeni also took aim at some of the city's priciest neighborhoods, saying they were overrated and overpriced.
Yardeni thinks the High Line is over-hyped
“The High Line is completely overrated," he said. "How many times can you walk the High Line? Life is more than just walking the High Line.”
Several new condos debuting on the Upper West Side are also struggling to get the numbers they initially planned for, he said.
"I don't want to say that the market is dead," he noted. "But it's on life support"
Looks like those predictions of a market slowdown are coming true:
ReplyDeleteCrains: High-end condos hitting headwinds
Some of the city's most expensive units are now struggling to attract buyers.
WestSide Rag: LUXURY APARTMENTS PULLED OFF MARKET AFTER HIGH-END SALES SLOW
One of the hot new luxury developments being built on the Upper West Side was unsuccessful in its early attempts to woo buyers, forcing the developers to pull the units off the market, according to a report in Crain’s. Naftali’s new condo project at 210 West 77th street did not draw enough interest in its first few months on the market, the paper reported. As high end projects sprout all over the city, some are having trouble selling units.
The pyramid scheme has reached the bottom.
ReplyDeleteSadly we will not have our matzo made in our 'hood
ReplyDeletefrom NYC water with the tried and true matzo makers and equipment. What will go in next, a bank? How about another bar and for these new people who have no relationship to what was here before and why they are even in this neighborhood. Makes me wish for the bad old days when none of these new folks would dare set a foot our neighborhood. . .
Where will I get my unsalted crackers now?
ReplyDeleteI hope you guys and Yardeni are right, but as long as the rest of the world's in an economic slump, NYC RE looks like a safe stable place for foreign 1%ers to invest.
ReplyDeleteReading the article it seems antiqued ovens played a important part of the decision. I am sure NYC Business Development can assist in finding new space with tax credits for a move to Brooklyn. Brooklyn neighborhood would be ideal allowing retention of workforce ties to a Jewish community is possible...New Jersey no this is a ethnic New York business belonging in New York Brooklyn makes economic sense.
ReplyDelete