Will IHOP transform Carmine Street?

Carmine Street in the West Village offers quaint shops like Unoppressive, Non-Imperialist Bargain Books. Increasingly, however, the street is also home to mega-chains such as International House of Pancakes. But locals and businesses disagree about the future of the somewhat sleepy strip, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“I don’t like brands, because then it’s just Times Square,” one resident told the Journal. “A Pinkberry — that’s my worst nightmare.”

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Others say the neighborhood is ripe for development and that the arrival of the 10,000-square-foot IHOP, which signed a lease in May, augurs a bright future for real estate in the vicinity.

IHOP is “a big brand, and it’ll help me convince other big brands to follow,” Kevin Salmon of Salmon & Marshall Real Estate, who negotiated the deal, told the Journal. “People don’t even know where Carmine Street is — yet. We’ll fix that.” [WSJ]