Photo: Brownstoner

Gothamist has some good stuff on the lease renegotiations on the Bagel Store. Long story short, landlord is doubling the rent, bagel store is leaving. But don’t bet the house on a Starbucks at this location.

The landlord’s Starbucks threat (“[The landlord] told me, okay, I’ll give you a break and only raise the rent to $14,500 a month. We can’t afford that, but he says that’s what Starbucks can pay…”) sounds a lot more like a for instance than actual threat. The Bagel Store’s lease isn’t up for another 18+ months. There are plenty of places they could move into now, why would they want to wait two years (which is how long it would take with build out and all). If Starbucks wanted a store in Williamsburg, they’d have a store in Williamsburg.

It’s also worth remembering that this is the same landlord who owns the rusting hulk across the street at Bedford and North 4th. Two years ago, he was going to put a Commerce Bank in there, but that deal fell through. He’s been happy to leave it as a rusting eyesore (though frankly, it is less of an eyesore than the bank would have been). (Speaking of vacant Backer properties, does anyone know what is happening in the old Citywide Lumber space?)