Thursday, May 12, 2022

A look at the long-vacant storefront on the NW corner of 3rd Avenue and 12th Street

A moment to take a look at the NW corner of Third Avenue at 12th Street (88 Third Ave. officially). 

As far as we can recall, the space has been vacant since Gotham Pizza closed in the summer of 2018

One short year later, we spotted workers gutting the space, one of them saying a Chinese restaurant was in the works here

And that was that. 

Today, the storefront remains empty. 

A 14-day rent demand dated April 7 (2022) remains on the front door. The tenant, doing business as Flying Pig, owes some back rent — $281,134.68 to be exact (the monthly rent being $21,855) ...
The landlord is likely in possession of the establishment now. So we'll see what might be next someday. 

But can anything bring back the joy here of the one, the only, the Funkiberry...

10 comments:

  1. bring back New Amici pizza

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too miss the Amici pizza place. Such nice guys working there.

      Delete
  2. With rent at 21-22 K a month - unfortunately nothing is coming back there

    ReplyDelete
  3. Landlord is crazy, b/c no one would sign a lease there for that amount of money.

    Even Taco Bell picked the OTHER corner of that block (at 13th), and I'm sure they considered this corner as well. That should tell the 12th St. landlord something.

    ReplyDelete
  4. These days, a lot of these landlords bank ( no pun intended ) on businesses failing. A biz will sadly stay open for just a few months and close. The landlord gets to legally keep the security deposit, which is a big chunk of change, and then look for the next potential tenant / sucker. It’s evil.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Predatory landlords must be held accountable.

    ReplyDelete
  6. EV Signage and Font TrollMay 12, 2022 at 4:47 PM

    Hey, your local font troll may be stoned, but suddenly the Funkiberry signage seems exuberant and delightful in a retro-80s kind of way. Or maybe it's just that I long for those endless yogurt possibilities, to once again control the portions and the scene . . .

    the graffiti is kind of hot too, to be honest

    ReplyDelete
  7. Re:3:26 The landlord gets to legally keep the security deposit, which is a big chunk of change, and then look for the next potential tenant / sucker. It’s evil
    Landlord pays brokerage commission which adds up to be about the first years commercial rent. Tenant usually gets 2-3 months rent free. After eviction and non-payment drags on for months, don't see how a landlord "profits" from a closing commercial establishment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not sure where you get your info from, but as a former retail store owner in the East Village, I did not receive even one month free rent. I rented directly from the landlord, so there was no brokerage commission. And when my business finally closed because I could no longer afford the ridiculous rent, the landlord legally walked away with 4 months security, and re-rented the space about one month after I closed up shop. So your math is sympathetic to the landlords but doesn’t add up.

      Delete
  8. @Anon. 8:42 - If landlords were that worried about it, and were hoping to avoid taking a financial bath and having paying tenants instead, maybe they wouldn't be charging such insane rents knowing it will leave their spaces empty for God knows how long.

    ReplyDelete

Your remarks and lively debates are welcome, whether supportive or critical of the views herein. Your articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to an article are welcome.

However, commentary that is intended to "flame" or attack, that contains violence, racist comments and potential libel will not be published. Facts are helpful.

If you'd like to make personal attacks and libelous claims against people and businesses, then you may do so on your own social media accounts. Also, comments predicting when a new business will close ("I give it six weeks") will not be approved.