Master List: 2001 - 2013
At the end of each year, I usually do a round-up of that year's vanished places. But this year is special. This year means the end to the evil Bloomberg era, so I offer this "Master List" of Vanished New York from 2001 to 2013. It's been 12 merciless years of destruction and loss, from "significant" losses to countless "smaller" ones--neighborhood laundromats, shoe repair shops, drugstores--far more than I have compiled here.
If you look only at this list and add up all the years in business represented, we lost approximately 6,926 years of New York City history in only a dozen years. And we know the real number is much higher than that.
Clearly, we need strong protections for the city's small businesses. Many of the closures were due to the impact of gentrification, either through rising rents, demolition for luxury development, or a decrease in business due to their neighborhood's up-shifting of demographics and values. A few closed for unrelated reasons, like the owner's death or retirement, but I included them all. I'm sure I've missed many--in part because I didn't start the blog until 2007. Please add them in the comments, and include the date and reason for closure if you can. Also, if you see any mistakes, please offer corrections. Thank you.
This list is a living document. I plan to add to it over time. Here's a nice quote about it from Kristin Iverson at Brooklyn Magazine: "For those of us who have lived in New York for a long time, perusing the list was not unlike looking through a high school yearbook, only finding out that practically everyone had died."
2013 (836 years)
Stile's Market: 26 years
Pushed out by landlord, to be demolished for luxury development
5Pointz, formerly Phun Phactory: 20 years
White-washed by owner, to be demolished for luxury condo towers
Famous Roio’s/Ray’s Pizza: 40 years
Building sold
Ray Beauty Supply: 50 years
Property seized by landlord
Vercesi Hardware: 101 years
Building sold to be demolished for luxury condos
D’Auito’s Bakery: 89 years
Unknown
Odessa Restaurant: 48 years
Building sold, gastropub to move in, now for rent
Splash gay bar: 22 years
Lack of business
Paradise Café: 20 years
Rent hike
Big Nick’s Burger and Pizza Joint: 51 years
Rent increase from $42,000 to $60,000 a month
Max Fish: 24 years
Rent increase
Joe’s Dairy: 60 years
Cost of doing business
Bleecker Bob’s Records: 46 years
Rent hike
Blarney Cove: 50+ years
Evicted for new development
Sofia’s Italian restaurant: 35 years
Lost their lease
9th Street Bakery: 87 years
38% rent hike, replaced by juice-cleanse and smoothie shop
Capucine’s Italian restaurant: 33 years
Rent hike
Rawhide gay bar: 34 years
Rent hike, to be turned into a pizza chain from California
2012 (1302 years)
Rocco Ristorante: 90 years
Lost lease to trendy restaurateurs, gutted and upscaled
The Holiday Cocktail Lounge: 47 years
Sold and gutted for a gastropub
Kenny’s Castaway’s: 45 years
Rising cost of business
McCullough’s Kiddie Park, Coney Island: 50 years
Lost their lease
Manganaro's Grosseria: 119 years
Sold and gutted for a more upscale restaurant
A Clean Well-Lighted Place: 36 years
Now an upscale boutique
World of Video: 29 years
Lost its lease
Chelsea Gallery Diner: 30 years
Forced out of Chelsea
Bill's Gay 90s: 88 years
Lost its lease to a trendy restaurateur, gutted and upscaled
Atlas Barber School: 64 years
Lost lease due to hiked rent, now a UPS
Prime Burger: 47 years
Lost lease when building sold
Lascoff Pharmacy: 113 years
Closed and gutted
Colony Records: 60 years
Closed when the new landlord quintupled the rent to $5 million
Movie Star News: 73 years
Rent hiked, turned into a luxury bathroom fixture store
Lafayette French Bakery: 30+ years
Evicted
Partners & Crime Bookshop: 18 years
Closed due to lack of business
University Diner: 60 years
Evicted
El Faro: 85 years
Possibly evicted?
Village Chess Shop: 40 years
Closed due to lack of business
The Stage Deli: 75 years
Rent increase
Lenox Lounge: 63 years
Landlord doubled the rent, given to upscale restaurateur
H&H Bagels: 40 years
Last location evicted
2011 (575 years)
Gansevoort Pumping Station, Premier Veal plant: 105 years
Evicted and demolished for new Whitney Museum and High Line headquarters
Polonia: 22 years
Probable rent hike
Auggie’s Coffee shop: 45 years
Could not afford the rent
The Original Ray's Pizza: 52 years
Legal dispute with landlord
Mars Bar: 26 years
Demolished to build luxury condos, to become a bank
Brownfeld Auto: 120 years
Evicted when landlord decided to sell for luxury High Line development
Chelsea Hotel: 127 years
Sold and closed to guests
Life Café: 30 years
Dispute with landlord over repairs
Elaine’s: 48 years
Death of owner
2010 (886 years)
Skyline Books: 20 years
Probable rent hike, replaced with a body waxing salon
JJ’s Navy Yard bar: 103 years
Evicted, sold, and demolished, replaced by hipster coffee
Telephone Bar and Grill: 22 years
Sold and replaced with a frat bar
Gino: 65 years
Closed when landlord raised rent $8,000 per month, turned into a cupcake bakery chain
Empire Diner: 34 years
Lost their lease
Guss’ Pickles: 100 years
Left the Lower East Side due to rising neighborhood rents
Shore Hotel: 107 years
Coney Island hotel, demolished by Thor Equities to make room for new construction
Fedora: 58 years
Closed by owner in old age, taken over by a trendy restaurateur, gutted and upscaled
Carmine's at the Seaport: 107 years
Closed when landlord raised the rent to $13,000 a month
St. Vincent's Hospital: 161 years
Closed and demolished for a billion-dollar luxury condo project
New York Doll Hospital: 109 years
Death of owner, no successor
2009 (613 years)
Arnold Hatters: 50 years
Unable to make rent after original location taken by eminent domain to build New York Times tower, replaced by 7-Eleven
Joe Jr.'s diner: 35 years
Lost their lease, now upscale coffee
P&G Bar: 67 years
Lost lease, gutted and replaced by upscale cafe
Amato Opera House: 61 years
Closed by the owner in old age, building sold
Love Saves the Day: 43 years
Closed in part due to high rent
Tavern on the Green: 75 years
Bankruptcy
Café Des Artistes: 92 years
Bankruptcy
Manny’s Music: 74 years
Bought out by Sam Ash, also later shuttered
Provincetown Playhouse: 91 years
Demolished by NYU
Biography Bookshop: 25 years
Rent hike, owners relocated as BookBook
2008 (821 years)
Jefferson Market: 79 years
Money trouble, now sales office for billion-dollar luxury condo project at St. Vincent's
Fazil’s Times Square Studio: 73 years
Closed for building demolition
Astroland amusement park: 46 years
Sold to Thor Equities for redevelopment
Donnell Library: 53 years
Closed and demolished for a luxury hotel
The Minetta Tavern: 71 years
Landlord raised the rent, gave lease to upscale restaurateur
Bobby's Happy House: 61 years
Building sold for a big-box chain store
Chez Brigitte: 50 years
Rent doubled, replaced by frozen yogurt chain
Cafe Figaro: 39 years
Lost their lease, became fast-food burrito chain and bank
Yankee Stadium: 85 years
Demolished and replaced with an upscale ballpark
Shea Stadium: 44 years
Demolished and replaced with upscale, corporate-named Citi-Field
Florent: 24 years
Closed due to rent hike, from $6,000 to $50,000 per month
Vesuvio Bakery: 88 years
Sold
M&G Diner: 40 years
Sold and shuttered
Cheyenne Diner: 68 years
Lost its lease, moved away
2007 (783 years)
Limelight: 24 years
Shuttered by police, reopened, eventually closed and converted to luxury shopping mall
The Roxy: 29 years
Shut down for conversion to luxury condos
Dojo’s Restaurant, 33 years
Rent hike
Gertel's Bakery: 93 years old
Sold, demolished for condo development
The Playpen Theater: 100 years
Sold and demolished for luxury hotel tower and Shake Shack chain
Chumley's: 79 years old
Collapsed
Jade Mountain: 76 years old
Death of owner
Moondance Diner: 74 years
Closed for condo development, moved to Wyoming
Kurowycky Meats: 52 years old
Closed due to lack of business
Copeland's: 49 years old
Victim of gentrification
Donuts Coffee Shop: 32 years old
Evicted
Sucelt Coffee: 31 years old
Rent hike
Teresa's Polish restaurant: 22 years old
Rent hike
Rose’s Turn: 56 years
Family sold building for $3.5 million
Coliseum Books: 33 years
Rent too high
2006 (373 years)
Cedar Tavern: 140 years
Demolished for condos, replaced with a body waxing salon
Gotham Book Mart: 86 years
Evicted
McHale's Bar: 62 years
Demolished for luxury condo tower
The Second Avenue Deli: 52 years
Rent increase, replaced with a bank
CBGBs: 33 years
Rent dispute, replaced by John Varvatos upscale boutique
photo via Satan's Laundromat
2005 (278 years)
Variety Photoplays Theater: 108 years
Demolished by the Toll Brothers for a 21-story condo tower
Fulton Fish Market: 170 years
Moved to the Bronx due to “the creeping conversion of Manhattan into a monstrous mall” --NY Times
2004 (319 years)
A. Zito & Sons Bakery: 80 years
Rising cost of business
The Bottom Line: 30 years
NYU raised the rent
The original Kim’s Video: 17 years
?
Jon Vie Bakery: 42 years
“a victim of soaring rents in a neighborhood populated as much by bankers as by bohemians.” --NY Times
Domino Sugar Factory: 150 years
Declining business, to be converted to luxury condos
photo via: Intersection's Flickr
2002 (127 years)
Ratner’s: 97 years
Cost of doing business
Madison Avenue Bookshop: 30 years
Lack of business
2001 (13 years)
Wetlands: 13 years
Building sold for luxury condos
If you look only at this list and add up all the years in business represented, we lost approximately 6,926 years of New York City history in only a dozen years. And we know the real number is much higher than that.
Clearly, we need strong protections for the city's small businesses. Many of the closures were due to the impact of gentrification, either through rising rents, demolition for luxury development, or a decrease in business due to their neighborhood's up-shifting of demographics and values. A few closed for unrelated reasons, like the owner's death or retirement, but I included them all. I'm sure I've missed many--in part because I didn't start the blog until 2007. Please add them in the comments, and include the date and reason for closure if you can. Also, if you see any mistakes, please offer corrections. Thank you.
This list is a living document. I plan to add to it over time. Here's a nice quote about it from Kristin Iverson at Brooklyn Magazine: "For those of us who have lived in New York for a long time, perusing the list was not unlike looking through a high school yearbook, only finding out that practically everyone had died."
2013 (836 years)
Stile's Market: 26 years
Pushed out by landlord, to be demolished for luxury development
5Pointz, formerly Phun Phactory: 20 years
White-washed by owner, to be demolished for luxury condo towers
Famous Roio’s/Ray’s Pizza: 40 years
Building sold
Ray Beauty Supply: 50 years
Property seized by landlord
Vercesi Hardware: 101 years
Building sold to be demolished for luxury condos
D’Auito’s Bakery: 89 years
Unknown
Odessa Restaurant: 48 years
Building sold, gastropub to move in, now for rent
Splash gay bar: 22 years
Lack of business
Paradise Café: 20 years
Rent hike
Big Nick’s Burger and Pizza Joint: 51 years
Rent increase from $42,000 to $60,000 a month
Max Fish: 24 years
Rent increase
Joe’s Dairy: 60 years
Cost of doing business
Bleecker Bob’s Records: 46 years
Rent hike
Blarney Cove: 50+ years
Evicted for new development
Sofia’s Italian restaurant: 35 years
Lost their lease
9th Street Bakery: 87 years
38% rent hike, replaced by juice-cleanse and smoothie shop
Capucine’s Italian restaurant: 33 years
Rent hike
Rawhide gay bar: 34 years
Rent hike, to be turned into a pizza chain from California
2012 (1302 years)
Rocco Ristorante: 90 years
Lost lease to trendy restaurateurs, gutted and upscaled
The Holiday Cocktail Lounge: 47 years
Sold and gutted for a gastropub
Kenny’s Castaway’s: 45 years
Rising cost of business
McCullough’s Kiddie Park, Coney Island: 50 years
Lost their lease
Manganaro's Grosseria: 119 years
Sold and gutted for a more upscale restaurant
A Clean Well-Lighted Place: 36 years
Now an upscale boutique
World of Video: 29 years
Lost its lease
Chelsea Gallery Diner: 30 years
Forced out of Chelsea
Bill's Gay 90s: 88 years
Lost its lease to a trendy restaurateur, gutted and upscaled
Atlas Barber School: 64 years
Lost lease due to hiked rent, now a UPS
Prime Burger: 47 years
Lost lease when building sold
Lascoff Pharmacy: 113 years
Closed and gutted
Colony Records: 60 years
Closed when the new landlord quintupled the rent to $5 million
Movie Star News: 73 years
Rent hiked, turned into a luxury bathroom fixture store
Lafayette French Bakery: 30+ years
Evicted
Partners & Crime Bookshop: 18 years
Closed due to lack of business
University Diner: 60 years
Evicted
El Faro: 85 years
Possibly evicted?
Village Chess Shop: 40 years
Closed due to lack of business
The Stage Deli: 75 years
Rent increase
Lenox Lounge: 63 years
Landlord doubled the rent, given to upscale restaurateur
H&H Bagels: 40 years
Last location evicted
2011 (575 years)
Gansevoort Pumping Station, Premier Veal plant: 105 years
Evicted and demolished for new Whitney Museum and High Line headquarters
Polonia: 22 years
Probable rent hike
Auggie’s Coffee shop: 45 years
Could not afford the rent
The Original Ray's Pizza: 52 years
Legal dispute with landlord
Mars Bar: 26 years
Demolished to build luxury condos, to become a bank
Brownfeld Auto: 120 years
Evicted when landlord decided to sell for luxury High Line development
Chelsea Hotel: 127 years
Sold and closed to guests
Life Café: 30 years
Dispute with landlord over repairs
Elaine’s: 48 years
Death of owner
2010 (886 years)
Skyline Books: 20 years
Probable rent hike, replaced with a body waxing salon
JJ’s Navy Yard bar: 103 years
Evicted, sold, and demolished, replaced by hipster coffee
Telephone Bar and Grill: 22 years
Sold and replaced with a frat bar
Gino: 65 years
Closed when landlord raised rent $8,000 per month, turned into a cupcake bakery chain
Empire Diner: 34 years
Lost their lease
Guss’ Pickles: 100 years
Left the Lower East Side due to rising neighborhood rents
Shore Hotel: 107 years
Coney Island hotel, demolished by Thor Equities to make room for new construction
Fedora: 58 years
Closed by owner in old age, taken over by a trendy restaurateur, gutted and upscaled
Carmine's at the Seaport: 107 years
Closed when landlord raised the rent to $13,000 a month
St. Vincent's Hospital: 161 years
Closed and demolished for a billion-dollar luxury condo project
New York Doll Hospital: 109 years
Death of owner, no successor
2009 (613 years)
Arnold Hatters: 50 years
Unable to make rent after original location taken by eminent domain to build New York Times tower, replaced by 7-Eleven
Joe Jr.'s diner: 35 years
Lost their lease, now upscale coffee
P&G Bar: 67 years
Lost lease, gutted and replaced by upscale cafe
Amato Opera House: 61 years
Closed by the owner in old age, building sold
Love Saves the Day: 43 years
Closed in part due to high rent
Tavern on the Green: 75 years
Bankruptcy
Café Des Artistes: 92 years
Bankruptcy
Manny’s Music: 74 years
Bought out by Sam Ash, also later shuttered
Provincetown Playhouse: 91 years
Demolished by NYU
Biography Bookshop: 25 years
Rent hike, owners relocated as BookBook
2008 (821 years)
Jefferson Market: 79 years
Money trouble, now sales office for billion-dollar luxury condo project at St. Vincent's
Fazil’s Times Square Studio: 73 years
Closed for building demolition
Astroland amusement park: 46 years
Sold to Thor Equities for redevelopment
Donnell Library: 53 years
Closed and demolished for a luxury hotel
The Minetta Tavern: 71 years
Landlord raised the rent, gave lease to upscale restaurateur
Bobby's Happy House: 61 years
Building sold for a big-box chain store
Chez Brigitte: 50 years
Rent doubled, replaced by frozen yogurt chain
Cafe Figaro: 39 years
Lost their lease, became fast-food burrito chain and bank
Yankee Stadium: 85 years
Demolished and replaced with an upscale ballpark
Shea Stadium: 44 years
Demolished and replaced with upscale, corporate-named Citi-Field
Florent: 24 years
Closed due to rent hike, from $6,000 to $50,000 per month
Vesuvio Bakery: 88 years
Sold
M&G Diner: 40 years
Sold and shuttered
Cheyenne Diner: 68 years
Lost its lease, moved away
2007 (783 years)
Limelight: 24 years
Shuttered by police, reopened, eventually closed and converted to luxury shopping mall
The Roxy: 29 years
Shut down for conversion to luxury condos
Dojo’s Restaurant, 33 years
Rent hike
Gertel's Bakery: 93 years old
Sold, demolished for condo development
The Playpen Theater: 100 years
Sold and demolished for luxury hotel tower and Shake Shack chain
Chumley's: 79 years old
Collapsed
Jade Mountain: 76 years old
Death of owner
Moondance Diner: 74 years
Closed for condo development, moved to Wyoming
Kurowycky Meats: 52 years old
Closed due to lack of business
Copeland's: 49 years old
Victim of gentrification
Donuts Coffee Shop: 32 years old
Evicted
Sucelt Coffee: 31 years old
Rent hike
Teresa's Polish restaurant: 22 years old
Rent hike
Rose’s Turn: 56 years
Family sold building for $3.5 million
Coliseum Books: 33 years
Rent too high
2006 (373 years)
Cedar Tavern: 140 years
Demolished for condos, replaced with a body waxing salon
Gotham Book Mart: 86 years
Evicted
McHale's Bar: 62 years
Demolished for luxury condo tower
The Second Avenue Deli: 52 years
Rent increase, replaced with a bank
CBGBs: 33 years
Rent dispute, replaced by John Varvatos upscale boutique
photo via Satan's Laundromat
2005 (278 years)
Variety Photoplays Theater: 108 years
Demolished by the Toll Brothers for a 21-story condo tower
Fulton Fish Market: 170 years
Moved to the Bronx due to “the creeping conversion of Manhattan into a monstrous mall” --NY Times
2004 (319 years)
A. Zito & Sons Bakery: 80 years
Rising cost of business
The Bottom Line: 30 years
NYU raised the rent
The original Kim’s Video: 17 years
?
Jon Vie Bakery: 42 years
“a victim of soaring rents in a neighborhood populated as much by bankers as by bohemians.” --NY Times
Domino Sugar Factory: 150 years
Declining business, to be converted to luxury condos
photo via: Intersection's Flickr
2002 (127 years)
Ratner’s: 97 years
Cost of doing business
Madison Avenue Bookshop: 30 years
Lack of business
2001 (13 years)
Wetlands: 13 years
Building sold for luxury condos
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