LOWER EAST SIDE — A guitar shop that's been a Lower East Side staple for 17 years is packing up and relocating to Brooklyn — fleeing the rapidly changing neighborhood for an area that's more "off-the-beaten path," according to its owner.
Ludlow Guitars will vacate the storefront at 172 Ludlow St. on July 18 and begin scouting spaces in Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, said owner Kaan Howell, citing changes along the once-bohemian stretch of Ludlow.
"I'm not forced to leave and I don't have to go, but in terms of wanting to make it better for everyone involved and to make sure this place has a future... eventually moving is going to be absolute," he said.
"I've got this vibe that it's just sort of an odd extension of Soho. It's not that it's fully developed, but it's going in that direction — and if Soho prices are any reflection of what's about to happen..."
The music shop sits on a block between East Houston and Stanton Streets that was once occupied by legendary dive bar Max Fish — which shuttered in 2010 and opened in a shiny new Orchard Street spot in 2014 — and famed literary cafe Pink Pony, which closed in 2013.
The block is now home to the Ludlow Hotel and Hotel Indigo, while the swanky new Soho House offshoot Ludlow House sits a block away.
As the character of the neighborhood has changed dramatically, musicians and artists have flocked to Brooklyn, said Howell, making it an ideal spot to open a guitar shop.
"Brooklyn's got a huge community," he said. "It's cheaper, more musicians are living out there and in the areas we're looking at, there aren't really any music shops."
Howell said he was eyeing storefronts off the M and J trains rather than the L, fearing the impending shutdown would be bad for business.
Howell first announced the closure in a Facebook post on June 30, expressing sadness at the end of an era but optimism at a new beginning.
“We would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for helping making Ludlow Guitars what it is today, and though we are sad to go, not all is lost,” reads the post, which goes on to say the team is scouting for a new storefront with a tentative fall opening date.
