With restaurants now allowed 50% occupancy, more eateries are opening — and reopening— around town. Meanwhile, falling rents downtown are resulting in new leases, as we can see in activity on Bleecker Street, Allen Street and more.
All About Apparel
It’s getting busy on Bleecker Street. AnotherTomorrow, a sustainable fashion brand, will open its first brick-and-mortar store at 384 Bleecker. Children’s clothing designer Pink Chicken, a mainstay on Madison Avenue, is taking a location downtown at 397 Bleecker. Pinko, a women’s apparel brand from Italy, will debut a U.S. flagship in 5,000 square feet over three levels (including the basement) at 143 Spring Street.
Food, Glorious Food
As part of its plan to open 50 locations in the U.S. this year, Lidl, the discount supermarket chain from Germany, has acquired the former Toys R Us building at 1147 Old Country Road in Riverhead, New York. Other locations in the New York metro area will include Deer Park, Garden City, Staten Island and Astoria, Queens. Wholesale membership club AAA Wholesale will make its New Jersey debut at a former National Wholesale Liquidators store on Route 17 in Lodi. AAA will use the space to supply grocers, delis and convenience stores, while also allocating a small portion for retail consumers.
Wining & Dining
Award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson will lease over 5,000 square feet in the base of the Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea for a new restaurant and culinary concept. Samuelsson’s restaurant will be located on the corner of 26th and 11th Avenues, with outdoor entrances as well as an interior entrance for direct access from the 2.3 million-square-foot building, which encompasses a full city block between 11th and 12th Avenues and 26th and 27th Streets. Taco Bell Cantina will come to Times Square, at 1501 Broadway. Vegan restaurant and juice bar Beloved Café will launch its first location outside San Francisco at 196 Allen Street, formerly Pala. Bakery Tres Leches Café offers desserts, bagels, muffins and more at 160 Orchard Street. Down the street, Mi Salsa Kitchen serves up “authentic” Cuban cuisine at 205 Allen.
Columbia University students, faculty and neighbors will have new restaurants. Japanese eatery Sapp’s will open its first location outside Long Island City at 2888 Broadway, while Bushwick pizza favorite Roberta’s will have its first freestanding branch at 2913 Broadway. Upside Pizza has taken over the former Pomodoro space at 51 Spring Street. At press time, seafood eatery Crab Du Jour was scheduled to open momentarily at the former La Flaca site (384 Grand Street). Not far away, Juicy Crab Express debuted at 213 East Broadway. Wine club service Orange Glou has applied for a license for a brick-and-mortar location at 264 Broome Street. The concept would offer “orange” wines (those made from grapes without skins removed). Sant Ambroeus has reopened its full restaurant at Brookfield Place.
Home Sweet Home
Art9 Comics LLC opened Philippe Labaune Gallery, a European comic art showroom in the 1,250-square-foot ground floor of the retail space at Douglaston Development’s 555 West 23rd, replacing the Victoria Miro Art Gallery.
To Your Health
“Medtail,” a trend for filling vacant retail space, is taking hold in the city. Juno Medical has signed for a location on the ground floor of the Aloft hotel at 2300 Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem, while Uptown Dermatology will locate at 2802 Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Spear Physical Therapy’s latest location will be at 71 North Seventh Street in Williamburg, Brooklyn. Personal trainer Victor del Valle will open his first Aesthetic Lab, which will offer personalized workouts from top instructors, at 132 West Houston Street. CycleBar will replace the former Flywheel location at 51 Astor Place. A vacant retail space at 244 Broome Street at Essex Crossing has become a COVID-19 vaccination site.
That’s Entertainment
Swingers, a British concept that combines mini-golf with street dining, cocktails and dancing with live DJs, will open one of its first locations in the U.S. at the Virgin Hotel at 1227 Broadway. The hotel, from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Lam Group, is scheduled to open in the fall. A second U.S. Swingers club is planned for Washington, D.C.
Deep Discounts
Target has broken ground on a location at Cross County Center in Yonkers, New York, replacing a Sears store that closed nearly two years ago. The location, its first in Yonkers, will open next year.
Debra Hazel
Debra Hazel Communications
New York, NY
201-618-5247
