By Scott Etkin and Lisa Kava
Garden of Eden, the longtime food market at 2780 Broadway (between West 107th and 108th streets) is closing on Sunday, March 31. The lease is up and the owner decided not to renew, a representative from the company told West Side Rag on a phone call. Everything at the market is 20% off between now and closing, and any leftover food and groceries will be sent to the Garden of Eden location in Gramercy Park at 270 Third Avenue, which is under the same ownership. Garden of Eden sells fresh produce, meat, dairy, prepared foods, and pantry foods, and it has a bread and bakery section. There is another Garden of Eden at Union Square, which will remain open. (Thanks to Nessa for the tip.)
SLT, a fitness studio offering group exercise classes using pilates equipment, is opening on Monday, April 8, in the Ansonia building at 2109 Broadway (between West 73rd and 74th streets), on the second floor in Suite 208. SLT (which stands for Strengthen, Lengthen, Tone) is “a high-intensity, low-impact workout designed to deliver the best results,” a representative wrote to WSR in an email. SLT has 16 studios in the New York metropolitan area, including seven in NYC. SLT’s former UWS studio, at 580 Columbus Avenue (at 88th Street), closed in 2020. Physique 57, a company offering barre-based exercise classes was previously in the Ansonia space and also closed that studio during the pandemic in 2020. “The SLTeam couldn’t be more excited to be back on the Upper West Side, steps from the 1-2-3 trains and in the heart of the UWS,” the representative wrote. Founder’s Memberships are being offered for a limited amount of time at discounted rates.
EA Dumpling is opening at 201 Amsterdam between West 69th and 70th Streets on Wednesday, April 3, a staff member at another EA Dumpling location told WSR. The menu includes a variety of pork, chicken, vegetable, and curry chicken potstickers and boiled dumplings, as well as soup dumplings, noodles, spicy wontons, and appetizers. EA Dumpling already has two locations in NYC at East 55th Street and East 24th Street. Another dumpling restaurant, DiDi Dumpling, used to be in this small storefront until it closed last spring. (Thanks to Joanna for the tip.)
Relive Health, a wellness and anti-aging clinic, has signage up at the corner of 93rd Street and Columbus Avenue (an opening date isn’t available yet but we’ll follow up). Services include “personalized health” treatments, including hormone therapy for men and women, and “IV Vitamin Therapy.” It also has aesthetic treatments such as botox and laser hair removal. Relive operates on a franchise model and has 15 locations in the U.S., including several in Florida, Georgia, and New Jersey. There are no locations currently in New York City. This corner space has not had a retail tenant since construction on the building was completed a few years ago.
Mrs. McCarthy’s Mercantile, a small gift shop, is open in the back of West Side Kids at 201 West 84th Street (off Amsterdam) at West Side Kids’ new location. While the shop within the store technically opened in September 2023, owner Jennifer Bergman has been fine-tuning details over the past several months and it is now “ready for its full reveal,” she wrote to WSR in an email. Mrs. McCarthy’s Mercantile sells jewelry, books, quilts, vintage toys, and other “treasures for your home,” Bergman wrote. “When I was a very little girl, we used to frequent a little antique shop in an old barn,” Bergman wrote. “The proprietor, a lovely elderly lady, used to give me little gifts.” Her name was Mrs. McCarthy. In 2017, Bergman fortuitously married a Mr. McCarthy.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here.
I certainly wasn’t ready to hear the news about the Garden closing. So abrupt. We will miss it, even though the quality seemed to go down after COVID. Sigh. What’s next?
Great. Another nail salon? Or perhaps a fabulously overrated and hyper expensive yuppie obsession Van Leeuwen? Or, it will simply stay empty, the huge space, for the next 15 years, while the owners write it off their taxes.
This is an urban myth, there is no tax write-off for vacant commercial spaces. In fact there is a tax penalty called property taxes — you pay them regardless of whether or not you make money on a commercial space.
Keeping store fronts empty is a real estate evaluation strategy. Store owners can tell their loan officers that their stores are worth such and such in the current market thereby increasing the value of their property. It stops loans from being called in and may enable them to borrow more money. Kind of a Donald Trump tactic.
What are you talking about? Real Estate underwriting by lending institutions is based, in part, on net cash flow coming from a property. If you own a building that has commercial space that is vacant there is no cash flow coming from that space. In addition, a lender will also take into account the cost the owner may have to incur in order to renovate a commercial space the for the next tenant (ordinarily, these buildout costs are paid by the owner not the tenant.
and just the opposite is happening. Empty store fronts in this market decrease a property’s value. Ask anyone who owns commercial real estate how easy it is to refinance a property right now? I’ll give you hint — it’s not.
This is not how loan valuation and underwriting works. If a store is empty and the loan underwriter sees that, they are less likely to clear the loan and the property owner is stuck (if it’s a refinance).
Empty stores are bad for everyone. Residents, property owners, lenders and the tax base. Despite the conspiracy theories, there is no one who benefits from an empty storefront.
This is nonsensical and absolutely not the way real estate lending is done anywhere. Retail space owners cannot just tell lenders what their property is worth and expect to receive that amount without the lender making their own valuation. No lender operates that way when an owner declares a high value and comparables are easily available for the neighborhood. This goes for both vacant and non-vacant properties
Qualifying your narrative as a ‘Donald Trump tactic’ is not what his case was about. The issue there was primarily related to different valuations being used for loan purposes vs. real estate tax assessments.
Perhaps in the past, but lenders today aren’t that stupid. Vacant space equals no cash flow equals reduced underwriting value. There are projections of course but all depends on how the lenders are reading and evaluating the market at the time.
Huge loss for Garden of Eden. Politicos need to step in and help Broadway north of 96th Street as the vacancies keep piling up.
TERRIBLE NEWS ABOUT GARDEN OF EDEN!
I walked into Garden of Eden today (not even my neighborhood, but I take an exercise class around the corner, and it’s my favorite place to shop aside from Wegman’s – coming to UWS!!) and was SPEECHLESS to find out it’s closing. There is still a good selection of food, and the 20% off is legit.
Even with the 20 percent off everything is still a rip off.. I can see why they are closing.
Judging by the proliferation of strip mall chains in the neighborhood, it seems like landlords are lowering prices for rent, which contribute to the decline of our beloved neighborhood. The smoke shops – and the shameful failure to close them – is another indicator of how much the upper west side is hurting since covid.
Garden of Eden was always fantastic, over Christmas the manager let me have one of the many decorative baskets to help with a last minute Christmas gift, they really came through. I miss the Red Apple that used to be there too, had a classic experience with Larry Hogue in there for those of you who go back a few years.
Terrible about Garden of Eden!! If that landlord rents to another illegal pot shop this neighborhood is going to explode!!
Relive is private profit-driven healthcare, cherry picking the specialties that can make the most money with while ignoring the population’s real health needs like diabetes care.
Its not a doctor office – it’s clearly a boutique wellness spot!
I’ll really miss Garden of Eden and shopped there more than anyplace else. But my understanding of the way retail works is that it’s a good idea to pay your rent and Garden of Eden didn’t bother to do that consistently and owes the landlord hundreds of thousands, if not more. And in this case the landlord is your neighbors—the building it was in. I hope another small grocer takes its place but it may not be a sustainable location for one.
What’s the proof for this?
Sad about GOE but not surprised. Never seemed very crowded and with H-Mart and West Side Market up the street too much competition.
The stretch of Broadway near Garden of Eden has Westside Market and H-Mart.
Sounds like the owners decided running a 2% margin business next to two other 2% margin businesses was not worth it.
That Garden of Eden has always had quality plants outside- it’s a shame to lose those.
“Anti-aging clinic?” Everyone gets older one day at a time. It’s not a realistic (or kind) message that looking young is the ideal to strive for. With apologies to Donovan, “Wear your years like Heaven!
Congratulations Mrs. McCarthy for your dream come true!
I wish it were Gristedes @ 103rd, not Garden of Eden.
How does that Gristedes stay in business anyway?
It’s one of the enduring mysteries of our city.