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Tekserve to Close After Nearly Three Decades in Chelsea

 Tekserve at 119 W. 23rd St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
Tekserve at 119 W. 23rd St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
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DNAinfo/Maya Rajamani

CHELSEA — Computer-service center Tekserve is closing its doors after nearly three decades in Chelsea.

The longtime shop will shutter its retail space at 119 W. 23rd St, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, on Aug. 15 — half a month before its lease is up, vice president of sales and service Teresa Rivera confirmed.

Its service center will stop accepting repair jobs at the end of July, she added.

“We had a 15-year lease here, and I think at the time that we signed this lease, we were the only Apple store in New York City,” she said.

The store opened on West 23rd Street in 1987, selling Apple products and providing tech support for the brand when it was still a “fledgling” company, its website said.

Tekserve soon became a “fixture” in the city, providing services to real and fictional New Yorkers alike, as "Sex and the City" character Carrie Bradshaw brought her laptop to the store when it crashed, the New York Times reported.

Since Tekserve moved to its current space on the same block more than a decade ago, rents have increased and “the landscape has changed,” Rivera said.

“You can get Apple products and services at multiple locations now,” she said. “And probably more to come.”  

Its business-to-business division and a few other departments will continue to operate out of a location yet to be determined, Rivera added.

The store also plans to help the approximately 70 employees losing their jobs land on their feet, she said.

“Really, we’re just changing with the times, and I think everyone understands that,” Rivera noted.

“Obviously we’re happy that we were able to be in the Chelsea area for as many years as we have.”