The View, Solarium, 10-50 Jackson Avenue get new retail

From left: The View, Solarium and 10-50 Jackson Avenue

Spring has arrived and new businesses are sprouting up, especially in Long Island City. Local businesses are in flux as new restaurants open, old tenants relocate, and residential buildings find commercial tenants.

The ground-floor retail space at the condominium View along the Queens West waterfront is about to become a gym called Crank, LiqCity.com reported, while the retail space in the bottom of condo 10-50 Jackson Avenue at the corner of 49th Avenue is rumored to be getting a bakery and beauty salon, and Uncle Louie G’s Italian Ices is coming to the remaining retail space at the Solarium, at 5-43 48th Avenue.

The city’s restaurant scene is also shifting: the old Crossroads Diner at the corner of 48th Avenue and 11th Street will morph into Peruvian restaurant & bar Jora and Alewife, a beer bistro, is moving into the old Lucy Mojo space on 51st Avenue between Vernon Boulevard and 5th Street.

The kicker: After two unsuccessful attempts, Dunkin’ Donuts has finally secured a space on Vernon Boulevard. They were previously thwarted by condo owners of Ten63 Jackson at 10-63 Jackson Avenue, who petitioned to stop them from gaining space at the bottom of their building. Later, they were almost successful dealing privately with a landlord but neighbors and fellow mom-and-pop business owners talked the landlord out of accepting the deal. [LiqCity]