Photos by Stacie Joy
The East Village is losing one of its excellent and unique shops.
Guerra Paint & Pigment Corp. is leaving its longtime home at 510 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B to consolidate operations at their Williamsburg warehouse.
Why? Their building has a new landlord and "a triple net lease with untenable terms."
Guerra's management made the official announcement yesterday on Instagram:
We are closing our Manhattan location and consolidating our retail store to our Williamsburg warehouse where we have been for 20 years at 21 Wythe Ave. between N 14th and N 15th Streets, Brooklyn. The impetus behind the move is a new East Village landlord and a triple net lease with untenable terms, but we are excited for the change! Having operations all in one place will allow us to provide even faster service and turn around time, particularly on bulk orders ... We will miss our East Village home of 37 years, but we look forward to seeing you in Williamsburg!
The move is scheduled for the week of May 23. This shop will be closed that week for the transition. The soft opening in Williamsburg is expected on May 30. (The Instagram post has particulars about placing orders online during the move.)
We heard the news of the pending departure earlier this spring... when EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the shop for a visit...
Founder Art Guerra passed away in May 2021. He was 81.
10 comments:
Why are some landlords so EVIL??? (I know - pure naked greed...) So sad to lose this very unique & colorful(!) business. I loved walking by and identifying new pigments and bold colors.
I also lament the loss another longtime neighborhood retail business. I imagine another bar or restaurant will try to move into the space.
Sad news
It's all about GREED!
One of my earliest memories from when I moved onto the block in the fall of ‘90 was Art holding an art opening in the store. It made the block — which was pretty rough at the time — so much more warm and inviting.
So weird how the landlords all prefer empty space, I don't get it. It makes their neighborhood worse.
All of the greedy landlords should be publicly flogged every time a situation like this occurs.
Landlord greed is destroying this city, just like it did in the 1970s.
@11:52AM: No one has ever accused landlords of being either smart or logical.
Not their neighborhood, OUR neighborhood. These landlords don’t live here. These are investments. Grrrr…
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