Heartwarming Stories

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The New York Press has the tale of an UWS landlord who refuses to rent his retail space to a bank. "Bloggers and others have been speculating about the fate of a ground-floor retail space at West 87th Street and Broadway for months. Until September it had been home to Malaysia Grill, Broadway Fruit & Vegetable and Hot & Crusty Bakery. They were paying only $150 a square foot at the time. After they vacated, the building's owners gutted the ground floor and basement...Upper West Siders expected a Walgreens or yet another bank branch to take over the prime real estate, instead, like so many places where mom-and-pop shops have been booted out, it's remained vacant." Why? Because the Zabar family (of grocery store Zabar's) owns the space, and they want to rent to a retailer (like Uniqlo, Paragon, Ricky's or Morris Bros) that might actually add something to the community. [NY Press]