As several readers passed along last month, the E. 10th St. Finest Deli on the southeast corner of First Avenue was winding down its business... unable to come to terms with the landlord on a lease while sales plummeted during the pandemic. Per an employee: "We just can not pay $18,000 in rent."
The space is now vacant... as the deli moved on at the start of the month...
This is the second corner deli on this stretch of First Avenue to close this fall. Best Price Deli & Grocery on the southeast corner of 12th Street closed in late October.
7 comments:
I have relied on this store for years. I can't believe the landlord couldn't cut them a break. Now the place will sit empty for who knows how long. I do wonder if some of the landlords are using the pandemic to their advantage to get rid of small businesses thinking they can either sell their buildings with the tenants gone or sit back for a year or so and get a bank or another chain tenant.
Thank you East Village for the last memorable 15 years.
We have been trying to renegotiate the rent with our landlord for the past year, but she has refused and told us to leave if we can't pay it. It's a desired corner according to her.
After the pandemic, we showed her our bank statements to prove that business has been down more than 50% and we simply can't continue to pay our $18,000 rent to no avail.
And we have been paying the rent, but we had to cut staff and salary to survive.
Many of the other stores around we know were helped, but not this one.
We are not the first to go out of business and we won't be the last, especially during these difficult times.
This is terrible. So now the greedy landlord won't be getting that $18K a month. What does she really expect will replace this business, especially in the current state of chaos? And what kind of heartless person drives out a business like this?
Dear Finest Deli - I'm sorry you were treated so badly and had to close. You will be sorely missed.
I always went to the deli for a warm cup of coffee to get out of the winter chill. This is what happens when people have no compassion. I bet that landlord is a trumpette. Regardless, they are heartless and money grubbing. I hope that corner stays empty for a long, long time. Shame on them.
So what’s next for this corner? Noodles, dumplings, both...?
At 12:07 PM, Anonymous said:
So what’s next for this corner? Noodles, dumplings, both...?
How about pilates and kickboxing? Virtual, of course!
Did the deli owners / employees move elsewhere? We used to go for the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (on English muffins) and miss them so much. This deli made it better than anyone else!
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