By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — A new tenant is moving in to a stretch of Seventh Avenue stung by a string of closings.
Seventh Avenue between West 53rd and West 55th streets has been a depressing sight in recent months, with three shuttered storefronts along the west side of the street. First, the Alora shoe store closed, followed by the long-standing China Regency restaurant at 850 Seventh Avenue. Most recently, the 55th Street Deli on the north-west corner of the block shut its doors as well.
"Seventh Avenue's become very expensive. People cannot afford it," said Jose Robles, 50, the long-time manager of the Carnegie Deli, which sits between the shuttered stores.
But Syed Moen, 47, is hoping to turn the tide along the stretch, which is home to numerous hotels, gift shops and big-name delis catering mostly to tourists making their way between Central Park, Rockefeller Center and Times Square.
The Bangladeshi-born entrepreneur began work earlier this week to transform the former shoe store into a tiny, new electronics shop, "SLR Camera," which will specialize in discounted point-and-shoots, lenses and other equipment, Moen said.
While electronics shops are ubiquitous in the Times Square area — there are already three competitors operating within two blocks alone — Moen has been working for others in the business for the past eight years and is desperate to break out on his own.
"Business is not good, no doubt about that," Moen said as he took a break from unpacking merchandise and lining the small shop’s shelves. "There’s no guarantee. We just take a chance."
Moen reported looking for months to find a location he could afford, to no avail. Many landlords around Times Square are looking for brand-name tenants and large chains and see small retailers as "untouchable," he said. Then he stumbled on the storefront and decided to take a chance.
Moen said he knows that the competition’s tough. His plan is to offer the very best prices possible, under-cutting big-box stores such as Best Buy by selling for 3 to 5 percent profit.
"Believe me, it’s nothing. Sometimes you take, sometimes you don’t," said Moen, who said that he’ll have to rely on the busier summer months to keep the store open through the winter, when tourism drops.
But the real problem, local retailers say, is not bad business but sky-high rents.
Carnegie’s Robles, for instance, said the 55th Street Deli had closed because the building’s owner had tried to boost their rent by $15,000 to $20,000 to $55,000 a month. Managers had tried to raise the store's prices to keep up — charging $1.75 for a Coke instead of $1 — but he said they couldn’t survive.
"Do you know how many T-shirts, sandwiches they have to sell?" he said.
The building's owner and the leasing agent listed on the storefront did not immediately return calls for comment.
Marco Valentino, 50, who runs the electronics store directly across the street from the soon-to-open shop, said he was nervous about the competition, especially after seeing so many others pack up and leave.
Valentino said that even if business continued to improve, he’s fears his $42,000 per year lease could skyrocket when it comes up for renewal in five years.
"We're just going to have to close," he said of the possible impending rent hike.
But Moen, who has locked in his rent for the next four years, said Valentino shouldn't worry – at least about the competition.
"It’s like a big ocean. There’s a fish for everybody," he said.
