By Patrick Hedlund
Farewell to the King
In tough economic times, a couple of franks and a fruit smoothie for the price of pocket change appeals to both spendthrifts and gourmands alike. So it’s sad to report that the Papaya King on 14th St. and Seventh Ave. just shuttered after six years at the location.
Following the corner eatery’s hitting the market earlier this year in the face of escalating rents, the hot dog purveyor sold its lease to a new tenant at the intersection, which has recently seen an alarming amount of vacancies.
“We lit up that corner quite a bit,” said Dan Horan, president of Papaya King, which was established by a Greek immigrant in 1932 and also operates locations on the Upper East Side and Harlem. “We really liked the neighborhood, we enjoyed being there, and hopefully people were happy with us,” he added.
The space will be taken over by unnamed bagel shop/deli, which signed on for a 10-year lease, according to Horan.
Papaya King would like to open another location in the city, but not until rents become “realistic,” Horan noted. “It’s very expensive doing business in New York, period,” he said.
Where to rent
New York City renters looking for the luxuries of a doorman building Downtown should head for the Lower East Side, where prices for many unit types have fallen precipitously from a month ago.
According to the Real Estate Group New York’s Manhattan rental market report for November, the average rent of all doorman and non-doorman units on the L.E.S. slipped by slightly more than 5 percent since October. The figures include a 14.4 percent decrease for doorman two-bedrooms (currently at $3,908 per month), a 10.2 decrease for doorman one-bedrooms ($2,474) and a 6.7 decrease for doorman studios ($2,152).
Manhattan’s most expensive units remained in Soho and Tribeca, with the former having the most expensive doorman one- and two-bedrooms ($4,885 and $7,833, respectively) and the latter having the most expensive non-doorman studios, one- and two-bedrooms ($3,491, $4,915 and $6,928), as well as the most expensive doorman studios ($2,898).
Noteworthy changes in Tribeca included an 11.9 percent spike in the average rent of non-doorman studios since October (a $372-per-month increase) and a 7 percent uptick in the average price of non-doorman one-bedrooms (a $323 increase).
Major drops occurred in the average price of Village doorman two-bedrooms (down 4.94 percent), East Village non-doorman studios (down 5.20 percent) and Soho and non-doorman studios (down 9.61 percent).
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