PARK SLOPE — A business owner with ties to the neighborhood's past is zooming into the future with a new drone shop.
Joe Dweck, whose family owned Dee & Dee discount store on Fifth Avenue and 14th Street for 25 years, will open Analog Drone in the same building by the end of May, he told DNAinfo New York.
Analog Drone will feature racing drones and focus on the "hobby end" of the drone market, meaning drones that users build themselves and tinker with until they find the fastest combination of parts, Dweck said.
Dweck, who also constructs handmade bikes, says drone-building attracts similar do-it-yourself types who enjoy comparing notes on how to create the best machines.
"I want to offer more than just a price on a drone, I want to offer advice on how to get into it as a hobby and a sport," Dweck said. "It was a hobby for nerds, but it's become so easy to use that everyone is doing it."
The store will offer service and repairs and will have an indoor flying area where customers can take small drones for a test spin.
The inventory will include the F210 racing drone, which is flown with virtual reality goggles. Analog Drone will also be the only store in the city selling the BooBoo Frame, a $42 bamboo racing drone frame that's handmade in New York.
Analog Drone will be in the basement of 250 14th St., which Dweck's family has owned for about 40 years, Dweck said. They ran Dee & Dee discount store there from about 1980 to 2004. A bank now occupies the street-level retail space.
Analog Drone's arrival comes just three months after the opening of Brooklyn Drones NYC at 315 Fourth Ave.