A wave of new retail chains and high-end Businesses Along Flatbush Avenue and Park Place in Brooklyn has led to the eviction of several small-scale mom-and-pop shops.
Little Miss Muffin is one of at least six businesses forced to relocate due to new development on a half-mile Stretch From Grand Army Plaza to the Barclays Center. Lecia Lee Chee, who has run the muffin shop for 20 years, received an eviction letter in September.
Landlord Stuart Venner is looking to vacate a building at the corner of Park Place and Flatbush Avenue that also houses El Gran Castillo de Jagua, at 345 Flatbush Avenue.
Chee told the New York Daily News that spaces once rented for $3,000 per month now cost between $15,000 and $20,000. Venner, who did not comment to the newspaper, plans to build an urgent care office and is considering upscale retail shops and a fitness center.
“Are we building a community?” said Atim Oton, co-chairman of Brooklyn Community Board 8’s economic development committee. “Or are we building property owners who are really greedy?”
In October, a video game store, an eyeglass shop and Starbucks signed leases for a heavily vacant strip mall at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension, as The Real Deal reported. [NYDN] — Mark Maurer