From the Times Ledger:Seven small businesses along Queens Boulevard will not see their monthly leases renewed and will have to clear out of the block above the Continental Avenue subway station to make way for a large national tenant.
The businesses, some of which have been at the same location for nearly 30 years, will have to leave the premises as part of a long-term development plan by Cord Meyer, the owners of the property. But a Key Food on one end will remain open.
“The whole building will be demolished,” said Anthony Colletti, a spokesman for the company. “The new building will be built one story high and house a national retailer.”
Rumors that CVS will be the next tenant were neither confirmed by Colletti nor the pharmacy.
Where are the protests over the loss of small businesses? Why were no elected officials quoted in this article?
33 comments:
That question is better asked of the business owners. If they don't seem to care why would anyone else?
See, that's interesting. You read the article (of course you did), which included this:
One employee of Nellie’s Jewelry said Cord Meyer had strung them along by offering a month-to-month lease instead of a five- or 10-year lease that most businesses enjoy.
When the time came to redevelop the property, Cord Meyer simply stopped renewing the leases and left the store, which had been at the same location for about 25 years, without a home, he said.
And assumed that the businesses don't care.
This is Queens. Read the papers. Simply mindless press releases by party hacks extolling the wonderful leadership of the borough.
Every picture with the tweeded: kids, seniors, immigrants, bike riders and gays carefully positioned to surround a local pol whose face oozes with self entitlement and self importance and whose empty vague eyes betray a low voltage brain.
Then there are also the EDC and developer press releases that are a sorry substitute for what used be considered urban planning.
And sometimes the underpaid press stringers just hopelessly mingle the two.
Now when NYC wants to cluster-fuck a nabe they don't even use a lubricant!
Thank you Mayor Bloom-hitler!
Sieg heil!
just what that area needs a cvs
better yet a bank
fh is done fucking toast
counting the days until i vacate this pice of shit hood
restaurants all suck
cheeseball ghetto trash people
run for the hills
It's OK for CVS to br there and not for Walmart elsewhere or anywhere in the city in fact. Now CVS need a competitor, right?
Last time I looked there is plenty of empty retail space in this city, and more each week. I would think these business owners could get a great lease any number of places.
Heard Whole Foods is looking at that space...
I don't see any wrongdoing here. If I owned a business and the building owner wouldn't give me a long-term lease, I would start looking for a new location. As someone else noted, there's no shortage of empty stores. They own the building -- they should be able to lease the retail space out as they choose. I'd be outraged if the government interfered with private business.
Nobody cares about Queens anymore...sadness.
But QC, the businesses got a rent break in their month to month leases anyway, as stated in the article. The business owners had years (literally from 2006-today) to plan for finding a new space while getting discounted rent. The developer, as the owner of the property, does have the right to develop the property as well, don't they? It's not like they evicted them without notice. Cord Meyer also didn't charge them market rate rent (which they may or may not be able to afford) in the interim. All in all, I'd say the businesses had ample opportunity to find a new space before now and didn't get a raw deal from the developer. I don't see the need for outrage or protests just because a developer gave businesses ample time to find a new space and give them a reduced rent in the interim. If they had been kicked to the curb, yes outrage would be justified, but the developer does have the right to use the space as they see fit, don't they?
No, that is not the point. The point is that a "big box" is moving into the neighborhood, which means Mom and Pop stores will go out of business. Maybe these stores were not in direct competition with CVS, but a local pharmacy, supermarket, cosmetics store, etc. would be. All this outrage over Walmart, none over this, yet Mom and Pops will suffer the same.
Have you ever been in those old, dirty stores that are closing down? Good riddance.
Good "mom & pops" in the neighborhood, such as Thank Heaven, thrive in the face of competition from Benneton, Baby Gap, and Childrens Place. The bad ones shut down, as they should. (I, for one, don't miss the lousy service and high prices of Buster Brown)
So, by your logic QC, there should never be a "big box" because smaller businesses will receive competition from the larger retailer and will be unable to keep up due to the cheaper prices (via volume discounts) the larger retailer can provide consumers? Seems a little unrealistic, but ok.
So I guess the next question is, what is qualified as big box and what is qualified as a small business? What happens if you have 5 chains, are you a small business? How about 50? How about 500? And let's just throw competition right out the window QC, since we need to have small businesses at all cost (even if consumers spend more at small businesses than at larger retailers).
No, it's not my logic. It's the logic of the anti-Walmart crowd. I was pointing out the hypocrisy.
That's disgusting. Blame the hypocrisy of the media. If the media brought it to light, then I'm sure all the people who were angry at the Walmart, would be angry at this, too.
As I am. Will be contacting Koslowitz as soon as I can.
Thanks Queens Crap, for bringing this to light!
Hey stupid: The media did bring it to light. It's a Times Ledger story. Crappie copied and pasted. Think before you post.
A paper no one reads.
Hey , it's business. It happens all the time ,everywhere. It's not your concern. It's the American way and you love it.
No one reads the Times Ledger? Maybe no one you know. Idiot.
Well in my neck of the woods for some reason they charge for it where I can go to Bayside and pick up their version of that paper for free and read most of the same articles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft87MU-p_XY
Sorry to post here but NEWS FLASH!
Mike Bloomberg booed at Triangle Shirt Factory Memorial NYU!!!!! Someone shouted back him when he talked about safety now -- than why do you shut fire houses?
"just what that area needs a cvs
better yet a bank
fh is done fucking toast
counting the days until i vacate this pice of shit hood
restaurants all suck
cheeseball ghetto trash people"
SO TRUE! I'm getting out soon, too. The place blows
I live near the Key Food end of that block. I was sad to see the Medical Hall Pharmacy, What a Deal the deli and the fruit stand go. The shopkeepers always gave you their undivided attention and appreciated their customers and really went out of their way for the locals.
I'm tired of property managers forcing out small businesses for no other reason than speculation of a chain store using that space instead. There are already tons of empty storefronts on Austin Street and now Cord Meyer are contributing to the decline of this neighborhood by leaving a prominent block relatively deserted. I fear it will no longer be safe for my family to walk that single block from our building to the subway entrance due to this abandonment.
How about contributing to our well-being rather than your pockets, Cord Meyer?
"I fear it will no longer be safe for my family to walk that single block from our building to the subway entrance due to this abandonment. "
It's not abandonment, it's redevelopment. if the only thing that makes you feel safe in your neighborhood is open stores, perhaps you shouldn't leave the house. I mean without those stores, Queens Blvd is fairly deserted, except for the tumbleweeds.
That Cord-Meyer has some nerve trying to maximize the profit on their real estate.
"I'm tired of property managers forcing out small businesses for no other reason than speculation of a chain store using that space instead."
“The whole building will be demolished,” said Anthony Colletti, a spokesman for the company. “The new building will be built one story high and house a national retailer.”
Which part of this statement sounds like speculation?
I think more people read Queens Crap blog than they do times ledger...I'd hardly call it the type of media that talked about Walmart (i.e every news outlet and their mom).
So no. No one really reads time ledger. That's the main reason I read Queens Crap...to get all my local news....jerk.
I think more people read Queens Crap blog than they do times ledger...I'd hardly call it the type of media that talked about Walmart (i.e every news outlet and their mom).
So no. No one really reads time ledger. That's the main reason I read Queens Crap...to get all my local news....jerk.
?? Why are their FOR RENT signs on the stores??
If there are plenty of open storefronts on Austin Street and Queens Blvd, what's the problem? Why can't the other stores relocate there? Also, maybe I'm weird, but I prefer shopping in a CVS or Rite Aid to some dumpy, local drug store. The locals never carry some of the items I want to buy. I live in Briarwood, and even though there are several drugstores in my neighborhood, I have to go to one of the nearest so called "box" stores to get the non prescription items that I want, which are not in my neighborhood. I would love for a CVS or Rite Aid to put a store up here. They always have what I need. While we're at it, I would love for there to be a Starbucks and a McDonald's and a Taco Bell closer to where I live too. Guess what? People like these stores, and they like their products...that's why they are nationally successful. Do we have some great local stores here? Sure, we do, like Alba's Pizza and the Flagship Diner. But, I'll bet you, neither one of them is dependent on a sub market price lease to survive. And both of them could easily move to another property, if their land owners put in a big box. New York is a big town. There is room here for succesful local businesses AND for national chains. This city was built on dynamism and change, not "stablity" simply for its own sake. I'm pretty sure something else was on this block before these stores were built, or before these particular tenants moved in. The stores next to Keyfood on Queens Blvd are not landmarks, they aren't parks, and they aren't public spaces. They are private businesses in a business relationship with another private business..the landlord. They don't have some sort of inalienable right to the space, they have leases. When the leases are up, the landlord has the right to kick them out, if he can get a better deal from someone else. And, as has been mentioned, in this case the landlord went far beyond that. He gave these businesses literally years notice of his plans. They have had ample time to plan, to find a new storefront in the nabe. And the LL does have a tenant lined up, so there is no issue of destroying storefronts and holding them for speculative purposes. Moreover, the big box Rite Aid on Austin Street is the only one in the area and, wouldn't you know it, it is always crowded. That's probably why CVS wants to put up a store nearby, because there is an actual public, consumer demand for a competitor.
Mr Real Estate person,
The chains don't give a shit about the local community like the mom and pop places did.
and yes, I go to them and regularly cannot find things that I get in the small places. and service? forgetaboutit.
First off, I'm not a real estate person. Secondly, a great many Mom and Pops don't really seem to care very much either. Thirdly, I don't really care if my pharmacy employee "cares" about me. Again, we're talking business here, not friends or family. Fourthly, I have gotten excellent service in chain pharmacies. I have had long consultations with the pharmacist over which non prescription remedy I need in certain situations. And I have gotten indifferent, at best, service in many local stores. Fourthly, your point about inventory makes no sense. The box stores are larger, and they carry many, many more items than the locals. Finally, what's wrong with competition? Why can't there be both big and small stores? Here in Briarwood, besides Alba's Pizza there is a Domino's. Me, personally, I would rather eat the leftovers at Alba's than anything from Domino's, but I don't think that my choice should be forced on everyone else. Some folks might prefer the chain, and there is room for both. Let them fight it out over quality and service and price, and let the best pizza parlor (or drug store) win. Or let them both win, if there is trade enough for both and some folks prefer the one and others the other. Rather than NIMBY an honest, respectable business simply because you don't like it.
The older cultured European Jews are dying off. The Bukharians have replaced them. The little nosh shops are gone. The 21st century is a mass media, mass merchandising culture. K-mart, Home Depot, Fresh Direct, Duane Reade, etc. are here now. Everything else you can order online.
I miss Woolworth's. Where can you now find everything under one roof from shoe repair to notions? After leaving Radio Shack....trying to get a battery replacement for my older cell phone, and got a "We don't sell any".....I went to Verizon where I bought it. Another "No". They tried to talk me into an "upgrade" for $200 more. I'm checking out Amazon for a Samsung battery. My older phone works fine. I just want a new battery. Planned obsolescence and nobody carries "parts" anymore convinces us "money machines" to part with more hard earned dough. The only repair shops left are hospitals. Big bucks there warranting a bricks and mortar operation. Oops, did I say "operation"? They are called "procedures" now.
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