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NYPRESS.COM • THE LARGEST PAPER ON THE EAST SIDE • JANUARY 30, 2014
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Bracing for the Super Bowl Priced out of
Carnegie Hill
Bringing Denver and Seattle to New York
Small businesses hit hard by rent increases, changes in co-op rules By Daniel Fitzsimmons
Two East Side bars that cater to Broncos and Seahawks fans prep for the big game By Daniel Fitzsimmons We know - the Giants flopped this season and the Jets didn’t do much better.
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Hoping for Pay Dirt On Super Bowl Weekend Renting out apartments to outof-towners, sometimes at sky-box prices By Alissa Fleck Real estate broker Ralph Auerbach owns a number of residences he’s been renting out for a few years through the website AirBnB, including one on the Upper West Side that is going for $5,000 for Super Bowl week. The rate for a normal week in January? $1,500. “I tend to be very selective and usually pass up more leads than I bring to fruition,” explains Auerbach of his vetting process. “These are people coming into my home.” With only days remaining before the Super Bowl, New Yorkers -- many of whom seem largely ambivalent to the big game -- nevertheless are hoping to cash in on the influx of visitors, offering up their apartments at prices that can triple or quadruple the usual rate. So far, though, game-goers aren’t biting. (Super Bowl ticket prices also, apparently, are off, with scalpers worried that cold weather may be keeping traveling
fans at home.) For the Super Bowl, Auerbach was hoping to rent his Upper West Side studio out to a single professional who might come to town for the game, not a gaggle of inebriated frat boys. “The Super Bowl does not draw a sophisticated crowd,” he explains, “maybe not the crowd you want in your house.” Continued on page 4
Fred Kooby signed a lease for his stationery store on the Upper East Side the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Since then, he’s operated Blacker and Kooby at the same location on Madison Avenue and 88th Street with a handful of long-time employees, some of whom have been with him for decades. But come Jan. 31, the Carnegie Hill mainstay will be closing its doors and relocating north to Lexington Avenue, with paired-down offerings that will only include the printing department. In one sense, the closing of a long-time neighborhood retailer has become the new normal in Manhattan, as rising rents make it ever-tougher for mom and pop stores to keep the doors open. But those pressures are now being exacerbated by a change in federal tax rules affecting retailers who rent space from co-op buildings. Prior to 2007, the “80-20 rule” required that these buildings receive 80 percent of their overall revenue from shareholders who owned apartments. But in 2007, that regulation loosened, enabling buildings to generate more money from leasing out retail space. Now, as five-year leases have started to expire, co-op buildings are cashing in on the ability to dramatically increase their business tenants’ rents. Blacker and Kooby is one of five businesses along a fourblock stretch of Madison Avenue that have closed or moved recently, along with the restaurant Jackson Hole, Moormends Luggage Store, the Green Tree Deli and the Gerald Bland Gallery. Kooby said the co-op he’s rented from for the past 50 years offered him a lease at double the $35,000-a-month he’s currently paying. “We decided that’s it, we’re leaving,” said Kooby. “The store, as it exists, that’s gone. Over half a century.” Gerald Bland - who rents space for his antiques gallery from a co-op - said he’ll be moving at the end of March after his lease expires. He was offered a new lease with increased rent, which he declined. It’s unclear whether Jackson Hole, Moormends and the Green Tree Deli were forced to close or move as a result of the change to the 80-20 rule; Jackson Hole closed last spring for repairs and a rental sign only recently appeared it its former
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