Surma Books & Music closed last summer at 11 E. Seventh St. near Cooper Square after 98 years in business.
Third-generation owner Markian Surmach cited a decline in business and the expense of property tax and other charges related to owning the building. Public records show that the Surmach family sold the property to Icon Realty for $5.75 million.
Since last September, Icon had been listing the space — "perfect for restaurant, bar, clothing store ..." — at $17,000 per month.
According to a liquor license application (beer-wine) posted on the CB3 website, a Chinese restaurant going by Le Xia will be opening in the space.
The paperwork shows proposed daily hours of 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. with seating for 48 people (via 21 tables). There isn't much more information on the application (PDF here), such as the previous experience of the principal (listed as Tianye Chen).
Given the method of operation and the owner's agreement to CB3 stipulations, this applicant will not be appearing before the CB3-SLA committee meeting on Monday night.
11 comments:
wow, 17 G's per month and that folks is just the rent. I assume this will a more upscale restaurant and the owners are not thinking of selling drunk food for the McSorley's patrons. Thank you Icon for making it impossible for mom and pop to open a business and making your newly gut renovated buildings a new form of transient housing for millennials.
Coming soon McSorley's Biscuits. Drunk. Drunker. Drunkest. Passed out.
Everyone whines about mom and pop stores disappearing but no one buys stuff there anymore. Most people buy crap online and then complain their neighborhood is turning into transient housing for millenials. Blame the city for that for continually increasing property taxes and water and sewer goes up 11% every year like clockwork. Throw in a few rent controlled and stabilized tenants and how do you think a mom and pop landlord can survive? Eventually they throw in the towel like Mr. Surmach did and you get the Icon Realties scooping everythign up. The city, and the people who don't frequent neighborhood mom and pop stores are to blame.
anon 9:24
are you assuming that Icon is a mom and pop landlord when you state: "Throw in a few rent controlled and stabilized tenants and how do you think a mom and pop landlord can survive."?
and do you really think that rent controlled and stabilized tenants are like a plague to be removed? that they are the cause of the astounding rents (commercial and residential)?
and do you truly believe that to combat this blatant greed is to remove the tenants that have been the glue of the neighborhood, folks that have roots here, want to stay here, shop here in the few stores they can still afford
Written like a landlord or developer.
Thank you @10:48am; well said!
And yes, @12:57pm, that was likely written by a landlord/developer.
Blue glass - I was pretty clear about mom and pop landlords who often owned the mom and pop stores (ie Surma) are being forced to sell to the Icons. And rent control was meant for soldiers returning from WWII not their grandchildren and their grandchildren's children in perpetuity. I know plently of people in the neighborhood that make $150k and still have a rent controlled apt.
While I have no desire to see long time tenants leave I am merely stating why mom and pop landlords are almost all gone and it is the greedy Icons who will force the long time tenants out. Everything has unintended consequences.
"Unintended consequences" but not unforeseeable ones, unless you're in the mass of sanctimonious whiners who think spouting the shibboleths du jour means something.
It's called "cashing out" while real estate market is high. The previous owners probably live in the suburbs on New Jersey. Let's face it East Village was a dump for decades and now it's sort of trendy due to the our governments policy to print money and eventually even so called bad neighborhoods get flooded with it.
Please don't think this is a dumb question, but why would a mom and pop landlord be forced to sell to an Icon like company? I guess if you could spell it out more. what are you inferring?
"Everyone whines about mom and pop stores disappearing but no one buys stuff there anymore."
You speak for yourself. Plenty of us support mom & pops and specifically go out of our way to do so.
"I know plenty of people in the neighborhood that make $150k and still have a rent controlled apt."
I see this type of comment all the time with nothing to back it up. Show me these people. And it's not rent controlled, it's stabilized. The people who keep making this argument seem not to know the difference. Without rent stabilization, there would be no more middle class, which is exactly where we're headed.
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