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Residents Plan to Hold Protests After Forest Hills Bakery is Forced to Move

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | November 13, 2014 8:49am
 Bonelle Pastry Shop on Ascan Avenue must move out by the end of the year.
Forest Hills Residents Plan Protests Against Closing Local Bakery
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QUEENS — A group of Forest Hills residents is planning to rally against a landlord who is forcing a local bakery to move out after 23 years.

Bonelle Pastry Shop, at 108-30 Ascan Ave., has to relocate by the end of the year because the landlord is set to terminate the lease when it expires then, the owners said.

Residents said that they are planning to organize protests and are working on fliers that they will soon be handing out around the neighborhood.

They are setting up a website — savebonelle.com — that will contain updates about the situation and should be up and running by the end of the week, the group said.

Customers are also signing a petition at the bakery, which as of Wednesday morning had about 850 signatures, the bakery said.

“We are trying to determine what we think is the best way to put pressure on the landlord to renew the lease,” said Joshua Peskay, 42, who has lived in Forest Hills for 20 years and comes to the bakery with his children on a regular basis.

“It’s been part of the community for so long,” said Peskay about the bakery, adding that most of his friends get birthday cakes from Bonelle. The shop, located on the way to P.S. 101, is also popular among local children.

The goal, Peskay said, is to convince the landlord, Babad Management Co., to extend the lease for at least another 5 years.

Owner, Rahita Ravel, said that she was deeply touched by the support she got from local residents.

“It's the community that is fighting for us now,” she said. “We are not going down yet.”

Leslie Brown, president of the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce, said she hopes that if the bakery is forced to move out, it will relocate within the neighborhood.

Brown also said that the situation serves as “a very powerful statement about ... the fact that there is absolutely no commercial rent protection for small businesses.”

Some residents worried that Bonelle is being forced out to make room for a new Dunkin' Donuts, which is scheduled to open next door, on the corner of Ascan Avenue and Austin Street, in December.

But franchise owner Scott Campbell said in a statement that the coffee chain “absolutely supports Bonelle Pastry Shop and hope they will remain our neighbor.”

“We see our businesses as being complementary,” Campbell noted.

The owners of the bakery said they had not been told why the lease was being terminated.

A representative for the landlord declined to comment.