End of an Era – For Lease Sign Goes Up On Empire Kosher Building
by CrownHeights.info
For thousands of Crown Heights residents, an end of an era is approaching as a “For Lease” sign went up this morning above the Empire Kosher Supermarket.
The building, which is presently for lease by Mendel Jacobson of ONE NYC Real Estate, was built in 1927 as initially hosted The Empress Theatre. The 1600 seat theater closed in 1941 and reopened as the Crown Theatre. In 1950 the theater closed for good. Th theater was quickly replaced by the nostalgic Associated Supermarket before becoming Empire Kosher in 2007.
The listing on ONE NYC Real Estate notes that the property offers a combination almost impossible to replicate in today’s Brooklyn market: “a 13,000 SF turnkey supermarket with refrigeration, loading docks and a private drive in place; a licensed, built-out medical facility; and a 16,000+ SF second floor with 20-foot ceilings ideally suited to storage, fulfillment or distribution — all served by private parking for 30 vehicles and direct rear-yard access along the Empire/Montgomery laneway for shipments and deliveries.”
According to the listing, the entire building can be leased as a single user from the beginning of 2027, or divided into its component spaces. This means that residents may see Empire Kosher closing it’s doors in a matter of months.
Of the original Kosher Supermarkets in Crown Heights, Empire Kosher has been the supply for kosher food and other essentials to thousands of Crown Heights residents. It will definitely be missed.
Feigie B
Wow! Empire isn’t relocating?
anon
to where canhe locate? how it he doesn’t own thebuilding? who doesn’t he expolre it or is Market place suddenle enough? was buyingthe building nextto & D. Feldman’s house too much? leaving prime rntal space emptry for months?
H. Hershkowitz
Should we be worried? Who owned the building previously?
Are they going to settle and this is just to arouse comunity concern and sympathy when the rent goes up and prices go up (c”v) so they can charge more?
The landlord and the tenant will be swimming in so much money and the community will be forced to shop elsewhere or do without.
Mushka
Wrting a targeted article like this very unfortunate for the chabad community Crownheights.info in another smear campaign.
Mr Ben-Abou dose so much מתן בסתר to many in this community. Besides the Free Bris House and other unknown to public good deeds.
You should remove this article an instead of pretending to be useful information for the public this is another hate article.
Shame on you
Esther Michael
I really think someone should act quickly because no one is going to pay the at the Market place. There are many people that are going to miss shopping at Emipire Kosher.
Negotiating
Seems it’s just a negotiation tactic.
Anonymous
Hope it will work out, because this is my main go to grocery store for so many necessities and Yom Tov items etc. I only have to go to this one place for just about everything. There’s no more complete a grocery and specialty items store in Crown Heights at fair prices as they are. I’ve been shopping there since they opened. They are one of first kosher supermarkets to open here.
to anonymous
kleins grocery (on the corner of empire blvd. and Brooklyn ave.) is the first kosher supermarket to open up in that area.
JD
I felt compelled to comment as the headline is misleading . I can attest that Itzik Ben Abou, the owner of Empire Kosher is a איש ישר and big בעל חסד.
May HaShem bless him and his family. Any lease offering / rotation is part of the normal course of business and not solely limited to the market.
Maybe in the end the market expands…. Only HaShem knows.
The Landlord