This departure is now official as of the end of December.
Owner Tiziana Agnello left behind a poster in the window with details about the new location... as well as some thoughts on the frustration of being a small-business owner in NYC. It reads in part:
Agnello, a former prop stylist, started selling her homemade creations online and in several pop-up locations back in 2012 ... before opening here in the spring of 2017.
We have searched and searched for over 16 months for a bigger location but the truth is landlords do not care to keep NYC colorful and full of artists and small business.If we did secure a lease brands like Blank Street Coffee would overbid and steal our lease. This happened at more than 1 location.
As for Blank Street, which some residents presume is a mom-and-pop enterprise, the brand raised $67 million in 2021 thanks to high-profile venture capital funds like General Catalyst and Tiger Global, the founders of Allbirds and Warby Parker, and real-estate titan Tishman Speyer, as The New York Times reported this past September.
Manhattan is a cash cow for landlords which are increasingly large corporations who's only concern is quarterly profits. The days or years of Manhattan as being an incubator for "new" ideas, products, services, or cultural starting points is over. Who do we own this movement in time to? Our elected officials who look to these companies to back their increasing more expensive campaigns. Who do we have to blame for these "on the take" pols? Ourselves for being either too lazy to vote or scrutinize those running for office and demand they act as representatives of we the people and not we the LLC's.
ReplyDeleteIn the eyes of politicians and the real-estate business that controls them, Manhattan is not a place to live and work. Instead, it is a site to be continuously and ongoingly developed, with what they see as blank spaces to be turned over as quickly as possible. Anything that might inspire people to put down roots, to inhabit, to care for, to invest their lives into a real place--such as parks, schools, libraries, public spaces, trees, community gardens, arts organizations, small stores and businesses, historic spaces that connect us to our pasts--are undermined and increasingly defunded. Anything that encourages community is uprooted--small memorials to, say, covid victims are ripped off park fences (this actually happened in Corlears Hook Park), volunteer-run groups that care for parks or gardens are either ignored, presented with impossibly onerous regulations and contracts, or kicked out altogether (see entire history of community gardens and East River Park and the Lower East Side Ecology Center), librairies are closed for ridiculously long periods and told to cut already barebone programs (such as Hamilton Fish) and so on and so on. It's tragic, but those who control NYC apparently want Dubai and they'll step over our bodies to get it. Our only consolation is their sort of hunger is insatiable and infinite (see Elon Musk)--they will have a hard time ever finding contentment in a peaceful space.
ReplyDeleteFantastic response. I wish you were our local council person. Logic is rare these days. Thank you.
DeleteI wonder what business was in that space before this business. My point being that NYC has been doing this dance for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteIn July 2014, the owners of the previous three businesses had to vacate their storefronts due to a structural issue in the building at 300 E. Fifth St.
ReplyDeleteJamie the check-cashing guy, whose family owned the business for 68 years, had to shut down at the end of 2014 as repairs dragged on.
I was always curious how Blank Street was expanding so quickly, given it's high rates and multiple baristas on site. And it now makes sense. With so much VC funding you don't have to worry about turning a profit like a small business owner because you're riding high on investor funds, so you could continuously go it the red while you build brand recognition or gather data (depending on your end goals). Thanks for that extra info EV Grieve! You're always an amazing wealth of neighborhood information. You ROCK!
ReplyDeleteLTB was a welcome addition to the EV and have been wonderful neighbors ever since their first day. Excellent people selling excellent products to excellent dogs....who have excellent owners.
ReplyDeleteWe will miss you.
Best of luck to you in your new home. Brooklyn dogs just got lucky.
Thanks, Dominique ... thought that this context was important for the post...
ReplyDelete@12:08 PM
ReplyDeleteI'm so tired of these blanket, not based on reality statements like yours which is on par with "The city that never sleeps" "East Village has always had 12 bars per blocks" and the classic "move back to Ohio if you don't like people partying all night".
"My point being that NYC has been doing this dance for a very long time."
Yes a many people have died here but most from natural causes rather than being murdered which is what the city is allowing the realestate overlords to do to our housing and small businesses. City government has the power to regulate just about everything yet they let landlords run off leash and shit on all of us.
The city is sleeping, just try to get a decent meal after 10pm
DeleteHere's the private equity Blank Street info with their "just good enough" coffe. Ugh: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/dining/blank-street-coffee.html
ReplyDeleteIf the city doesn't put a cap on commercial rents for small businesses based on square footage, it will be rare to see a retailer on the LES that isn't a national corporate brand.
ReplyDeleteI miss Jamie! I used to go to him to pay my rent and maybe buy some lotto tickets or stamps. I could have accomplished these tasks in other ways, but my real reason for going there was to see him and anyone else who may have been hanging out there. It was a real neighborhood spot and Jamie was a great guy and looked after the woman who lived around the corner in the "haunted" house. Losing small businesses like these literally takes life away from the neighborhood. It makes me sad that a lot of people either don't get this, or never knew businesses run by real human beings.
ReplyDeleteBlank Street. The name says everything we need to know. A faceless enterprise designed to obliterate the city’s vibrance one block at a time.
ReplyDeleteWhen the previous tenants at 300 E. 5th St. retail stores had to vacate it was because the landlord was converting the two apartments above into one large apartment for the super. The inept (read that as cheapest) construction workers broke though the floors thus compromising the structure. The "repairs" took years - a thinly veiled way to get rid of the existing tenants and that super actually left for a more lucrative position. BYW the current landlord is Faith Popcorn a "future focused marketing executive" who inherited the building from her parents and now has ruthless landlord to add to her resume.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, LTB was outbid in two different locations by $1000 by Blank Street Coffee AFTER HAVING A SIGNED LEASE! I hope everyone who reads this boycotts Blank Street Coffee as a destroyer of small local businesses.
Also Anonymous January 5th at 10:29 - so well said. Thank you!
expensive and bougie as hell, it's not exactly a place to shed a tear for, but they certainly should have been able to afford the rent on that relatively calm block, such BS
ReplyDelete6:45 - Jamie was a great guy! I too went there when I could have gone elsewhere. Our hood has been moving in a sad direction for decades.
ReplyDelete