Jackson Heights Life

As I attempted to do as much of my holiday shopping locally this year, it became really clear to me that we desperately need a bookstore in Jackson Heights. Actually, I would have loved to have had a good place to buy books, DVDs and music CDs right here in the neighborhood. I know this has been discussed in other JHL threads before, but I just wanted to state it again.  

Jackson Heights has an amazing assortment of ethnic restaurants, but what it could really use is a place that serves what I call "pub food" - burgers, salads, pasta and a few entres.  The kind of neighborhood place you could eat in several times a week and never tire of.  Manhattan has many places like this.  Good luck on whatever you choose to do!

A good bar.  Neighborhoody, not too loud.  I'd be in heaven.

A good Jewish deli with real rye bread would be my dream!  I go to Italian Farms and I like them, but it's not the same. Ah, herring! Good chopped liver and whitefish salad......

Thanks to all those who responded and gave good ideas, however I do not think there would be enough clientele to sustain such businesses like Jewish Deli, bookstore.

 Also the rents are through the roof at $4000 a month and up. For some reason the building owners think that because there is so much foot traffic people will be stopping in from morning till night, not so...If the price of goods is too low you will not be able to pay your cost and still make a profit. Then again if your cost is too high you still lose because know one can afford to pay.

I am all about profit, but not to the point where I make people feel that they cannot afford anything, and leave feeling uncomfortable... Get this on 82ND St. a Verizon store is opening soon, when I inquired about the space the owner was asking for $8500 per month...So my brainstorming still continues.

Thanks 77

The direction of this thread seems to suggest JH landlords limit the neighborhood’s potential by charging rents that primarily certain types of businesses, including chain stores like Starbucks and McDonald’s that already have money, can afford. Any business that doesn’t serve the lowest common denominator in terms of services desired by the majority of residents and workers in the neighborhood seems doomed to failure. If landlords didn’t charge such outlandish amounts for rent, small specialty businesses might be more likely to thrive, or open at all without closing in a year or two.

I wonder if there’s a correlation between this and the fact that some of our most successful venues like Espresso 77 and Terraza 7 Train Café (actually in Elmhurst) are so tiny. And any business that is evidently successful presumably runs the risk of having its rent dramatically increased by a landlord who wants a bigger share of the business’s profit for no other reason other than being their landlord, and is willing to charge the venue into financial ruin to get it.