Last August, Gurjaipal Singh and his partners took possession of a storefront at 75 Second Ave. between Fourth Street and Fifth Street.
They aimed to open
Desi Stop, a deli serving Indian food, tea, coffee and snacks, in the fall.
As of mid-April, Desi Stop remains in limbo, and Singh says he's gone bankrupt waiting for the city to OK the address to open and start serving food.
"Unfortunately, after six months and spending thousands of dollars and meeting with all requirements of city departments, we are still waiting for clearance to open up," he said in a text message. "Slow working of city departments is killing small businesses like us even before they can open."
The problems started in November when the Department of Buildings conducted the gas inspection. According to Singh, DOB officials said that they could not find any records in their database for the space after 1999. The DOB could not then approve the inspection. (It's not clear how the previous restaurants at the address, Nostro Ristorante and ZaabVer Thai, among others, were able to open.)
So Singh said that they started from scratch with the DOB, which included getting clearance from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (the building is within the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District), submitting new drawings and applying for new permits.
Singh also hired a fire suppression company. There was an initial delay by the company and then with the FDNY, Singh said. The certificate of approval remains in the review process.
"They open the file only once in four to six weeks. Ask for the requirements, then again another six weeks of waiting," Singh said. "We have made all the investments. But now, we have reached our limits. It's a small-business startup, and we can't pay bills from our own pockets for months. And now it looks like we have to close it even before opening this business."
Going Bankrupt. It's very unfortunate to share that we are going out of business without opening the business.
Slow and unresponsive behavior of different city departments killed this small business.