Dustin Yellin and 149 Pioneer Street (credit: PropertyShark)
The artist who bought the 24,000-square-foot former Time Moving and Storage warehouse in Red Hook for $3.7 million has ambitious plans to transform it into an arts center, the New York Times reported.
Even for Dustin Yellin, whose sculptures typically sells to collectors and celebrities for $25,000 to $100,000 and sometimes garners as much as $250,000, the venture is a risky one. [more]
Stumptown Coffee and 30 West 8th Street (building credit: PropertyShark)Stumptown has already reached near-ubiquitous status in Brooklyn and Manhattan as the coffee-of-choice for many small cafes and bakeries, but save for a location within the Ace Hotel, the roaster has yet to make a name in New York real estate circles. Today that changed as the New York Observer reported Stumptown signed a lease for 1,700 square feet at 30 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village. “This is going to be their big Manhattan roll out,” said Bill Abramson, director of sales and leasing at Buchbinder & Warren Realty Group, the owners of the property. [more]
Perhaps because of changing tastes, a widespread backlash against Starbucks or lower retail rents, high-end coffee shops are making their mark on New York City real estate and expanding rapidly.
As the New York Times reported, Ninth Street Espresso, Roasting Plant, Jack’s Stir Brew, Gregory’s Cafe, Think Coffee, MUD, Blue Bottle Coffee, Cafe Grumpy, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Intelligentsia Coffee and Joe the Art of Coffee are just some of the new breed of coffee makers, homegrown or imported from elsewhere in the country, that have descended upon the city with multiple locations in the last few years.
Coffee shops depend on volume so many are opening in office neighborhoods, retail brokers say, although the addition of baked items and packaged beans help them stay viable in residential neighborhoods where rents can be lower. [more]
There is no place like New York City for national and international retailers and a few such food and coffee chains are seizing opportunities to set up shop in the New York metropolitan area.
Texas Buffalo chicken wing franchise Wingstop, which has sold nearly two billion wings, plans to open its first New York restaurant in the spring of 2010, in Astoria or Forest Hills, Queens. The company seeks to open a minimum of 25 locations in the five boroughs as well as restaurants in Fort Lee, Newark, New Brunswick and Trenton, NJ. The 15-year-old company, which has more than 600 restaurants existing or under development in 32 states, has more than 70 restaurants planned for the Northeast. [more]
