From left, Arthur has shuttered and today is Demel’s last day, both at the Shops at the Plaza.

When the Viennese bakery Demel closes shop tonight for the last time in the Plaza Retail Collection stores, it will be the fourth retailer in about a month to abandon the troubled below-ground concourse. Demel, which is embroiled in a lawsuit with the owner of the Plaza Hotel, Elad Properties, will serve its last chocolate cake and latte tonight, a lawyer for the company said, and move out of the building at 768 Fifth Avenue over the next few days. A new location has not yet been identified, the attorney said. The retail space at the Plaza has been challenged with lawsuits and vacancies since the iconic Plaza Hotel reopened in 2008 following a $400 million renovation, with tenants and brokers complaining of poor property management and the lack of a coherent marketing plan. [more]

The legendary Demel Bakery is planning to walk away from a 10-year lease at the Plaza hotel’s grand concourse and is suing developer Elad Properties for fraud, the Post reported. Demel is claiming that Elad lured the Viennese bakery to the below-ground mall under false pretenses in February 2008 — namely, that the location would put it in the midst of retailers like Harrods, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Elad, which purchased the famed hotel for $675 million in 2004, has not followed through, according to the suit, filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court. The basement’s Plaza Retail Collection, part of a $450 million hotel renovation, is now “populated with unknown… retailers or — worse — vacant, unleased space,” the suit claims. Demel, which stopped paying rent to the Plaza in February 2009, is the only restaurant in the 160,000-square foot mall and could leave within weeks, according to sources, and other retailers are threatening to follow. [Post]