Well, we just lost another member of our family due to escalating rents. Chelsea Healing, the acupuncture shop in the east
ern most storefront of the hotel follows Capitol Fishing Tackle and Balabanis Tailor in being the latest casualty in the minority shareholders plan to remake the Chelsea Hotel in their own sickily image. Monday was apparently Chelsea Healings last day of operations; yesterday I saw workers packing boxes inside the storefront and moving them out to waiting vans. Luckily, they've found a place nearby, at 321 West 24th Street, so be sure to stop in and give them some business as a show of support.
One of the reasons Marlene Krauss fired BD (as revealed in the court papers) was because she didn't think they were moving quickly enough to force out the low-paying retail customers and replace them with, probably, a big box store. And Marlene certainly didn't waste much time: BD has only been gone for two months, and already she has emptied two storefronts.
Capitol Fishing Tackle Space, the largest storefront on the east side, has stood vacant for nearly two years. Now Dan's Guitars stands as the last holdout on the east side of the building. And there it should remain, as hopefully even the otherwise clueless Marlene has caught on to the appeal of Dan's Guitars. Situated in a storefront which has been a music shop of some kind since Stanley Bard's childhood.
(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ursaminormd/2511701363/)
Comments