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BY CHANDLER KIDD
Small businesses across Sheepshead
Bay are going belly up —
and they’re not being replaced
— with some storefronts remaining
shuttered for well over
a decade, according to locals.
“If you were in a spaceship
and decided to land on
Avenue U between Coyle and
Brown street, you would think
it is a ghost town,” said Stuart
Brynien, a longtime neighborhood
resident.
The crisis affecting the
coastal community can be seen
in graffi ti-covered brick-andmortar
shops appearing sporadically,
and sometimes one
after the other along Avenue U,
where between Coyle and Bragg
streets the ruins of the familyowned
Hy Friedman clothing
store, a long-shuttered furniture
outlet, and the obsolete
Captain Video — which closed
amid the rise of Netfl ix back in
2004 — all remain vacant.
As in the case of the former
video store, some shops have
remained unoccupied long
enough to spawn their own
urban legends, according to
Brynien.
The situation is not unique
to Avenue U — the Nostrand
Avenue Payless near Avenue Y
recently shuttered — and even
nationally owned retail chains
are struggling, according to
real estate lawyer and local
small-business advocate Steve
Barrison, who noted the Avenue
U storefront near Nostrand
Avenue formerly occupied by
a Duane Reade, which has remained
shuttered for more
than a year.
Rather, Sheepshead Bay’s
small business crisis is a symptom
of citywide trends, including
rising rents and property
taxes, which force entrepreneurs
to weather years without
turning a profi t, according to
Barrison
Barrison singled out issues
surrounding commercial lease
renewals — which, lacking
many of the same protections
that residential tenants enjoy,
can result in massive rental increases
— as the single greatest
threat facing local shopkeepers.
“The real issue is lease renewals
and dealing with greedy
landlords,” said Barrison.
The real estate lawyer
echoed Council Speaker Corey
Johnson, who last year championed
the revival of the Small
Business Jobs Survival Act, a
bill that’s lingered in committee
since its introduction in
1986.
“Right now, If you operate in
New York City and your lease
comes up for renewal they can
jack your rent up three, four,
fi ve times what it was and the
property sits vacant for a long
time,” Johnson said at a 2017
press conference, before arranging
an Oct. 22 Council
hearing to discuss the bill.
The bill faced massive opposition
from real estate interests,
including Real Estate
Board of New York President
John Banks, who called the bill
“deeply fl awed,” according to a
Curbed report . It remains laid
over in committee .
New York City’s retail crisis
has failed to cripple some longtime
Bay businesses. Nostrand
Avenue eatery Brennan and
Carr is still serving roast beef
sandwiches after 81 years, and
coastal commerce along Emmons
Avenue remains strong,
with longtime favorites like Il
Fornetto and Roll ‘n’ Roaster
still managing to make ends
meat, Barrison said.
But something has to be
done, and without action, even
those perennial Sheepshead
Bay icons will fold under the
burden of rising rents, Barrison
said.
Ghost town
Small business struggling to
stay open in Sheepshead Bay
/www.olgbk.org
/www.olgbk.org