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Two Kew Gardens Stores Go Out of Business After Less Than 2 Years

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | October 18, 2016 3:57pm
 An e-cigarette store and juice bar closed on Lefferts Boulevard in Kew Gardens closed recently, the owners said.
An e-cigarette store and juice bar closed on Lefferts Boulevard in Kew Gardens closed recently, the owners said.
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DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

QUEENS — Owners of two storefronts that opened on Lefferts Boulevard less then two years ago are calling it quits.

Misty Saloon, an e-cigarette store at 80-60 Lefferts Blvd., and Boba Juice, at 80-62 Lefferts Blvd., serving bubble tea and juices closed about two weeks ago, the owners said.

“It’s a very tough area,” said Ali Khan who co-owned both stores. "We wanted to revive this neighborhood but the support was not there." 

Khan said that people walking by the stores located across the street from Kew Gardens Cinemas and near the Long Island Rail Road station, were usually on their way home and have not considered the area a shopping destination.

“People don’t spend their money there,” Khan said.

Another business owner sought to launch a Peruvian restaurant, Corvina, in a third storefront located between Misty Saloon and Boba Juice.

But the eatery never opened after it turned out that the storefront had only electrical cooking equipment and no gas line, according to the Department of Buildings website.

A notice from the landlord, Harlington Realty, dated Oct. 5 and informing Corvina's owners that they owe more than $8,600 in unpaid rent was visible in the storefront's window on Monday.

Attempts to reach Corvina’s owners were not immediately successful.

Before Khan and his partners opened their stores in June 2015, all three storefronts had been empty for more than three years, frustrating local residents. 

But shortly after Misty Saloon and Boba Juice launched, some locals said that the stores were not a good fit for the neighborhood and that they would have preferred to have a restaurant or a food store at that location.

Meanwhile, Pink Lily, a bakery which opened nearby around the same time, has become a popular hangout among residents, locals said.

“People in the neighborhood respond positively to the bakery, they like its products and they like going in there,” said Grace Anker, the owner of a nearby pottery studio and member of Karing for Kew Gardens, a group working to improve the neighborhood and promote local businesses.

She said the other store owners "didn't do their homework [and did not research] what is the neighborhood like, what kind of demographic is in the neighborhood and who would want their product?"

Anker said she hopes another business owner will see the empty storefronts as a “great opportunity."