Businesses bid Morningside adieu

As the slow summer in Morningside Heights officially comes to a close, it is leaving behind a tangible mark through an array of recently departed businesses.

The shifts among Morningside retailers have created a commercial radius around Columbia’s campus that is now filled with boarded-up, newspaper-covered storefronts that sit depressingly alongside a few fresh merchant faces.

On Broadway, the sea of empty retail fronts created in the spring by Fotorush, Tomo Sushi and Sake Bar, and Empanada Joe’s expanded this summer when Jas Mart (the Japanese grocery store), Community Food & Juice (with continued delays in fire recovery), and Morningside Bookshop (the neighborhood independent that plummeted into debt) closed their doors permanently.

Now, a walk down Broadway, heading south from campus, takes a hungry patron through a tour of many resilient restaurants that are struggling to keep their indoor and outdoor seats filled while the former homes of their lost merchant neighbors rot away beside them.

On Amsterdam Avenue, the losses of Cafe Fresh and Bengal Cafe were more quickly replaced by new food vendors who are competing now to feed hungry students.
In June, Jas Mart shut down entirely because its lease was up and the owners had no intention of renewing it, according to broker Jeff Roseman, executive vice president of Newmark Knight Frank Retail.

“Over the years, the company divested itself and now they are no longer really in that business,” Roseman said. “They lived out their obligation and had no interest in continuing,” he said. Roseman said that he hopes they will sign a deal with a new commercial tenant within 30 to 60 days, adding that he has spoken to a myriad of interested merchants, including food vendors, clothing stores, electronics outlets, and cosmetics businesses.

Roseman—who does not represent the storefront a few doors north where the Empanada Joes’ decaying façade still remains— said that he thinks their lease is not finished at that location. He speculated that they are still paying rent even though their doors have been closed for many months.

Community Food & Juice has remained shut down significantly longer than the owners anticipated because the reconstruction of the space after the fire was more intensive than they had initially expected, according to proprietor DeDe Lahman. She added that they have taken the summer to redo the kitchen and fix some pre-fire problems in infrastructure.

Lahman said they are aiming to reopen by the end of the month. She added that the menu, setup, and feel, will virtually be the same when they do.

Delfino Galvez, a worker at the new Mexican restaurant, 5 de Cinco, which replaced Bengal Cafe on Amsterdam between 110th and 111th streets, said that the previous Indian restaurant had done very poorly and ultimately could not stay open.

“They went out of business—couldn’t pay rent anymore,” he said.

“We are very affordable—hopefully we will do better,” he said. They opened over the weekend, and he admitted, while looking around his entirely empty restaurant, that it has been a slow start. But in six months when they have secured their liquor license, he is more confident that they will thrive on Amsterdam.

Also on Amsterdam, Cafe Fresh—owned by Columbia—closed down in July, and a month later, Cafe Bagutta, which launched a full makeover, took its place. So far, the restaurant has been fairly successful, according to current manager Jennifer Slater.

Columbia declined to comment on the closing of Fresh, but the new cafe, with a somewhat similar menu, is under entirely new ownership. Slater said that business has been slower than they expected, considering the initial construction investment, but she, like many local proprietors, is hoping that the recent influx of students will prove to be the perfect medicine for survival.
LaVerna Fountain, associate vice president of communications for Columbia University facilities, declined to share the volume of commercial vacancies the University currently has, but she said in interview that they are mostly talking to local businesses to try to fill the empty spaces. “We have a community of people we need to serve, and we are really committed to supporting local businesses.”

When asked if Columbia would ever bring in a chain, she said, “It’s not a rule, but it would be an exception.”

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