Jackson Heights Life

That's Flagship!  Wow!  My husband and I were talking about that place recently and were wondering how long they would last in this economy.  What a shame if they were to go out of business.  One the main guys that has worked there for ages is really sweet and very helpful.

That is to bad; the place did seem big for what it sold.  The location would make a great hardware store.

There are many empty stores on Norther also. The Glass & Mirror place and the Raw Furniture store (next door to each other) between 84th and 85th are both empty. Both are big, double spaces do its really noticeable.

There are other scattered empty place also on Northern in the 70's and 80's.

Landlords need to become more realistic in the commercial rent area. I can't imagine it is better to have an empty store than just lower the rents.

I noticed that the large frame store on 37th between 84th and 85th now has a sign saying "closing sale" on the window. 

Thank you for posting this!  I had something to get framed so I scooted in.  It turns out that the framing store isn't closing, just "Franco's Corner," the part in front that sells Nativity scenes, and small vintage pieces, etc. I will miss that mini-store but am glad Europa will still be there  

The problem with encouraging any new and different type of stores are the rents being charged.  The Starbucks location is paying in the neighborhood of $10,000 per month.  Or at least that was what they were asking before Starbucks took it over.  It is almost impossible to make anything work in the neighborhood as long as the rents are so high.  There are so many things we could use like: restaurants other than Indian or Latino. Great as they are there are too many.  How about a nice casual Italian restaurant or a place for a good glass of wine and a salad or burger. We keep gravitating to other neighborhoods because our offerings are too limited.  Look at Astoria and the different restaurants.  J Hts can do the same if the rents weren't so prohibitive. Maybe landlords would be willing to take a lower rent and a % of the profits?

This is pure speculation on my part, but maybe landlords tried to capitalize on the real estate boom of previous years. 

Does anyone know what's in store for the now defunct Kay-Bee Toys location?

I walked by there recently and noticed some workmen inside.  It looked like they were cleaning up.  Any updates?

An "As Seen on TV" products store moved into one of the empty spaces on 37th between 85th and 87th (can't remember which block exactly).  However, it does not look like it's there to stay, as no attempt was made to make it look like an actual store, and there are still "for rent" signs in the window.

And disappointingly, the pharmacy that's set to go into the space next to Tomo could not even be bothered to put the vinyl letters and numbers stating their store hours on the glass straight.  For me that's a really bad sign for a pharmacy that you want to be able to depend on to be accurate and fastidious since presumably you are trusting them with your medications. 

There are so many things I don't understand about retail here.