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From reopening post-9/11 to relocating

By Farnoosh Torabi | Special to amNewYork

September 11, 2006

William Saad at his shop, Aba KerolloÂs and WilliamÂs Tailoring. (amNewYork photo/Lane Johnson / September 10, 2006)

Eighteen days after the 9/11 attacks, William Saad traveled from his home in Jersey City to lower Manhattan. He then climbed nine flights of stairs to reach his shop, Aba Kerollo's and William's Tailoring, at 198 Broadway.

The building, which sits about one block from Ground Zero, had reopened and the 53-year-old was one of the first merchants to return.

"It was like the first man walking on the moon," he said. "There was dust everywhere. ... Everything was one color."

With his straw broom, Saad began sweeping until his 400-square-foot floor and prized Singer had resurfaced. Soon after, the phone started to ring again, customers reconnected and William the Tailor, as he's known, tiptoed back into business. The worst, he thought, must be over.

Little did he know that his greatest plight as a small-business owner in the financial district would arrive some five years later when the MTA used eminent domain to seize 198 Broadway and about four other neighboring buildings, which house about 150 businesses, for its development of the Fulton Street Transit Center.

All tenants needed to leave by Sept. 6.

Saad was one of the luckier commercial tenants; he found a new space nearby on the second floor of 7 Dey St. one week before the deadline.

"I did my homework. I walked on foot and saw what was available," Saad said. His savior was the building's doorman who gave him the tip about the available space, he said.

Saad is content being in the same neighborhood and close to the many clothing retailers that use his services. He's hoping a paper sign with his new contact information outside his old building will redirect customers. He's also making house calls.

The relocation came at a bigger price, though. His monthly rent has doubled to $1,600 a month and countering the increased cost will mean a busier work life for the father of four.

"It is the effort of a young man, 19 years ago," Saad said. "I'm not going to raise my prices. I'm just going to have to work harder, even if it means picking up and delivering the clothes myself."

The space is also twice as big -- almost too big for his purposes, he said.

He's brought his three sewing machines, his glass container of ashes from the 9/11 wreckage, his phone and his pictures of St. Aba Kerollo, a leader in Egypt's Christian Orthodox community and a person whom Saad calls "a good partner." He named his tailor shop after Kerollo.

"When I have problems, I talk to the saint," he said.

Saad is also filling up his space with people he calls "refugees," a couple of merchants who were also displaced by the MTA's rebuilding efforts.

Kris Ramani, 63, is a fellow tailor who's been sharing space with Saad for the past week. He promises his stay is temporary.

"Hopefully, we'll all be OK," Ramani said. "People have been good to me."

Saad reassured his friend, "It will happen. It will work. It's harder, but life tastes better this way."

Farnoosh Torabi is a video correspondent for thestreet.com. amSmallBusiness@gmail.com.