CHELSEA — One of the city's last remaining independent video stores, Alan's Alley, will close up shop for good at the end of June.
After a rent hike in July 2014, the 26-year-old shop moved from its longtime storefront at 207 Ninth Ave. to the fifth floor of an office building on West 25th Street.
"Our building is replacing their elevator over the summer and that means I can't really stay here," Sklar said, citing lost business. "There's no way to stay."
Alan's Alley specializes in British TV and classics, but its extensive library runs the gamut from new blockbusters to film noir. With video stores losing business, the neighborhood institution survives on its loyal local community.
"Unfortunately, our business is kind of Chelsea-centric," Sklar said. "People wouldn't even recognize what it was" in other parts of the city, he said.
But when he looked for new places nearby, he could find nothing that was affordable.
"The difference in rents even a year ago to now, the spaces that were $2,000 a month are closer to $3,000," he said. "It's part of the hypergentirication."
Sklar's old space on West 25th Street is still empty, like others nearby, he said, while landlords hold out for national chains like banks who can pay more.
"Mom-and-pop businesses are being driven out as their rent goes up," Sklar said.
The store's well-known orange marmalade working cat D.J., now 13, presided over the Ninth Avenue location but was not allowed in the new one.
Sklar brought D.J. down from an animal rescue center in Woodstock for a kid in the neighborhood, he said. When the girl went off to college, D.J. moved in to the store. He now lives with Sklar at his apartment.
At the new office building location, Sklar has worked alone. He misses his longtime employees and friends, who formed a tight group.
"I should think about looking for a real job, something I've avoided for the last 35 years," he said. "I'm just so grateful for the support I've gotten over the years."
Now through June 24, all videos at Alan's Alley are on sale, Sklar said. The selection includes "really new" movies, kids' movies, classics and TV shows. He must be out of his building by July 1.
"Me, well I'll be closing this place, putting stuff in storage, selling stuff," Sklar said. "It's not exactly the easiest thing at 66."