Customers grabbed the last few bagels at H&H shortly before it closed. Photo by Avi.
H&H Bagels on 80th Street and Broadway closed for good after 39 years last June, leaving Upper West Siders and bagel fans throughout the world shell-shocked. A morning ritual for thousands of locals was suddenly over, and tears spread like shmears of cream cheese across our doughy faces.
But a few months later, Leslie Albrecht broke some exciting news about H&H’s old building: Queens-based Davidovich Bagels was negotiating with the landlord to open a new bagel spot there. If we couldn’t have H&H, at least we could could still have bagels.
Alas, that dream appears to be over. I chatted today with Marc Fintz, the director of business development for Davidovich, and he said that landlord Friedland Properties has been unwilling to budge on the rent they are asking. The landlord wants about $450 per square foot, which would cost Davidovich $900,000 a year. Other similar spots in the area cost about $150 to $200 a foot, Fintz said. It’s simply not a bagel-friendly price: one reason H&H succumbed is that it couldn’t keep up with the soaring rent on the building. The company owed Freidland more than $300,000 in back rent when it closed.
Davidovich really wanted the H&H space — Fintz said that moving into the H&H spot would signal that “the mantel was being passed” to the next great king of New York bagels. And at first, Friedland appeared willing to negotiate the rent down. But their position stiffened, and now it looks like the deal probably won’t happen, Fintz said.
“They told us they really wanted a bank,” he said.
The landlord may also want to combine the H&H spot with the next door property, which once housed a tooth-whitening business, Fintz said.
Friedland Properties didn’t respond to our request for comment.
Fintz said that Davidovich is still committed to opening a store on the Upper West Side, and has been looking at other nearby spots. The company plans to sign a deal at another location if the H&H location falls through; once it signs, a new bagel store could potentially open within about a month.
Fintz said Davidovich has mostly taken over for H&H as the premier high-end distributor of New York bagels throughout the city and country. H&H’s financial woes have continued, and the company’s midtown bagel plant is scheduled to be auctioned off tomorrow. H&H said when it closed that it was looking for a new Upper West Side location, but that seems basically impossible now.
For our piece on the end of H&H, along with quotes about the iconic spot, click here.
Davidovich thinks rents there are $150-$200 psf? Hardly. That corner is worth $400 psf for sure.
— Retail Broker since 1987
Is this depressing or what? What bank or banks will occupy Filenes? Or will it be a car rental place or Subway or 7/11? Jane Jacobs is rolling around in her grave or urn!
Davidovich Have good bagels and croissant. My next favorite bagels.
Oh PLEASE no more banks! We need retail and services that support a lively and dynamic neighborhood where people want to live. In turn, that will be a benefit to landlords too. Nobody moves to or visits a neighborhood for its banks.
*SO* glad another bank might go in. I have my money spread at thirty other banks in a two-block radius in case five or more go up in flames.
H&H was one of the worst things that ever happened to the West Side and spelled the near-extinction of authentic old-style bagels. Good riddance.