[Photo by Steven]
The for rent signs have arrived at the now-vacant Angelica Kitchen at 300 E. 12th St. at Second Avenue... the listing isn't live yet at the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank website.
Leslie McEachern's vegan restaurant, which first opened on St. Mark's Place in 1976, shut down after service on April 7. McEachern said that "making the numbers work week in and week out is just not viable for us anymore."
[Photo by Steven]
In 2014, McEachern signed a new 5-year-lease for $21,000-plus a month. There is speculation among some Angelica faithful that the asking rent will be north of $30,000 a month.
In January 2014, Shima, Angelica's next-door neighbor on Second Avenue and 12th Street, abruptly closed. The space (via the same landlord as Angelica) hit the market then for $25,400 per month. The corner has been DumplingGo, Dumpling Guo and then Hot Pot Central in the past two years.
Updated 4/20
The listing is now online. The rent is negotiable.
Beer Store!
ReplyDeleteC'mon, Dirt Candy, time to open a second space! Hope a douchehole doesn't go here...big shoes to fill.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that the space remains unrented and vacant for a long time to come, depriving the poor landlord of revenue he would have gotten had he not gouged Angelica Kitchen with unaffordable, exorbitant rent. The closing of this restaurant is one reason, among many, why we need commercial rent control to protect smaller, independent businesses. Of course, there is absolutely no political will to enact this. De Blasio won't push for it, the useless Rosie Mendez won't, nor will most other members of the City Council. When it comes to reigning in the landlords NYC politicians will not be the ones to do it. They are too beholden to real estate interests.
ReplyDeleteShima was awesome :(
ReplyDeleteAside from and/or in addition to commercial rent control, two things would dissuade vulture landlords from displacing long-term businesses:
ReplyDelete1 - NO more writing off from city/state taxes the lost income" resulting from their evicting commercial tenants. allowing the write-off makes it PAY for them to evict vs negotiate a fair rent, as they get paid either way.
2 - When landlords raise commercial rents, their real estate taxes should be increased by a factor of 10x the new rent. This would give them incentive to leave commercial tenants paying affordable rents alone.
GOOD LUCK finding ANY politician not on the take that will take the initiative to protect long-term community-based businesses!!