Jackson Heights Life

Maybe it's turning into a mobile phone store, there aren't very many of those around.

“The owners are changing,” said Mohammad Rasal, an employee with Easy World, the cell phone store located right next door to the market.

An employee at Jackson Heights Wireless, located next door, said that it had been sold. So too did an employee at Cell Bell.

Any idea what the rent is there? I really want to start a campaign to get a couple of cool places here- like Communitea in LIC, which lost their lease, or Rest-au-Rant in a quiet nabe of Astoria. Why can't we have such places? AND of course, all our beautiful, regional, places.

Just following up on lalochezia's statement that we've discussed this before ... it's a combination of some of these things:

* Many properties owned by ethnic business assocs. which want to 'keep it in the family'
* Otherwise, very dense neighborhood has extremely low commercial vacancy rate
* When vacancies do appear, owners prefer to flip to national retail for higher rents
* The Census profile of the neighborhood makes it look like a low-income area, so retailers who go for higher-income demographics don't think they can build a market

It's sort of amazing that Espresso 77 exists, considering all of that.

it's been "a thing" in new york ever since there's been a new york. no, it's not true as much anymore as it was 40, 50, 60 years ago, but that's how Little Italy became Little Italy. Italian building owners renting to Italian tenants -- not just for restaurants and cafes, but for radiator repair, shoe stores, hardware. no coincidence they all had Italian names. ditto the old Lower East side and immigrant Jewish stores selling socks, underwear, hats, pickles.......

Quote from: theplanesland on July 30, 2015, 01:10:15 PM

* Many properties owned by ethnic business assocs. which want to 'keep it in the family'

Is this a real thing for sure? It's brought up constantly on these boards and it always seems specious to me. For one thing owners can't simultaneously prefer businesses owned by people of the same ethnicity AND national retailers; those are opposing priorities. It seems more likely that so-called "ethnic" businesses wind up renting space here because they're attracted to the neighborhood by the large potential customer base.

Sorry, different owners. The JHBA/JBBA properties along 73rd and 74th tend to rent "within the family." The landlords on 37th east of 75th, and along 82nd, go with the highest bidders.

It's not even necessarily about preferential rent; when there's a vacancy, the JHBA/JBBA folks just ask among the people who belong to the organization, and ask people they know, rather than advertising it publicly.

That doesn't imply causation though. My explanation -- that ethnic enclaves draw businesses that cater to those enclaves could also be the cause. It's not clear that property owners are discriminating against (or offering preferential treatment) to people of the same ethnicity. If there's evidence of that happening, I'd like to see it. Right now it seems like mostly conjecture to me.

This is definitely a "thing" in NYC and is very prevalent in JH.  It is not conjecture. I really don't want to say where I work but it is something we have studied and JH was specifically mentioned as a hotbed of preferential treatment.  If you are skeptical, go try to rent a storefront and see how it goes.

edited to add: thanks for the link, Dodger.  Sounds like it will be yet another grocery with steam tables.  Not terrible but not very exciting either.