Yet another victim of overpriced Manhattan real estate falls.

Sahara Grill was an excellent, inexpensive restaurant to get some of the best shwarma, falafel and other turkish / greek / middle eastern foods. Plus it was convenient to Midtown Comics and where I've been working for the last few years.

Their monthly rent went from whatever the existing 10 year lease was (which was probably under $8000 a month) to over $20K a MONTH. What the hell?!?! No place that serves $5 sandwiches can stay open with that kind of overhead. You want to know what's going to happen? Manhattan will finally get the wish of becoming a rich-mans land.

Sad and overall shameful.

I went to get my hair cut today from my normal barber, but when I got to the barber shop, the shop was gone. Chairs ripped out, mirrors gone. Completely empty a big for lease sign hanging in the window.

Damn that would totally suck !

from what I understand, most businesses go on 10 year leases - many of which are up this year. So plan on seeing more joints close down when their monthly rates go up $20K or more. I remember reading about a greek diner that is someplace around time square and their rent was going up to something insane like $70K a month. insanity, i tells ya.

A similar thing happened to Joe's Pizza on Bleecker Street. It was made semi-famous by the opening pizza delivery scene in Spider-Man II. The owner of the building loved them as tenants and had the rent at $900 rent for the 240 square foot space. That's lower than market, but they raised it 1666% to—get this—move in some bigger semi-chain pizza place that eventually closed... Now it's an overpriced Gelato shop. Joe's moved down the block into another space but it's not 100% the same.

The thing that's crazy is the asking price for a lot of these spaces are based on pre-recession prices. Nowadays, who will take over the space?

And past that, tons of overpriced restaurants have closed as well. So what the duck are people expecting to fill these spaces?

It makes me sick because everyone has a right to make money, but huge increases like that are just designed to shove people out.

I actually walked around Greenwich Village yesterday and can barely recognize the place anymore.

*GRUMBLE*

something wicked this way comes in nyc lately...not sure if other cities are having this happen, but there's a whole lotta shuttered businesses right now...big and small.

The positive side of the shuttering is many of the store owners who still think they are going to get obscene rents will have to face the fact that they need to get what they get. So rents come back down to earth. And maybe mom & pop stores come back.

Ever go down to 8th Street between 6th Avenue and 5th Avenue? That used to jumping! Now it's a ghost town.

it's been a while since i went down there, and it was even longer than that before, but did dojo disappear off st marks? if so when did that happen i loved that place, it use to be a staple of my city visits : (

Dojo disappeared a few years back. They were closed for health department violations, and honestly the last few times I was there I saw at least one mouse. But the drink specials! Now the place is gone and 1/2 of it is a Pinkberry the other place some other food place of that ilk. So if you want to see NYU kids in flip flops texting and eating some yogurt goo, there you go!

If it's any comfort, the Dojo branch on 4th Street is still there.

But the place is definitely different.

So sad, but I'm looking to this economic downturn as something that can revive the old New York.

+1. I'll have my city back.

i never made it to the one on 4th but i had heard of it... if the foods as good i might find it someday.