By MIRANDA NEUBAUER
SUNNYSIDE — Pockets of business vacancies persist in Sunnyside, even though the overall vacancy rate in the area remains low. One such space is the former Rite Aid store on Greenpoint Avenue between 46th Street and 47th Street, which closed in April 2022 and has not had a permanent tenant aside from a brief turn one year as a Spirit Halloween store.
“It’s very very frustrating because it makes the block dead and it hurts all the other merchants in the area because there’s nobody going to shop there, it’s not drawing anybody to the neighborhood,” said Dirk McCall de Paloma, executive director of the Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District. He said the landlord in question who owns the entire block is not one that communicates with him. “We always want everything to be occupied, if it’s occupied at least people are investing in the community, they are hiring local, they’re putting tax money back in … they have a better interest in keeping the street clean.”
“It’s a great location, it’s one block south of the subway. That area on Greenpoint Avenue has become a very interesting spot with Kora Doughnuts opening up,” said Ben Guttman, executive director of the Queens Economic Development Corporation.
The Greenpoint Ave property’s leasing company Solil Management did not return requests for comments.
McCall de Paloma said the BID had tried to make Greenpoint Avenue more attractive by putting up specialty lights. He stressed the importance of emphasizing the neighborhood’s strengths with data and seeking as much communication as possible with landlords.
The now-closed Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall on 45th Street and Greenpoint Avenue had drawn a lot of people, he said, but is now being developed after it did not get Landmark status under the Adams Administration. A possible performance space in the base of the new building would be a very positive neighborhood contribution, he said.
On the nearby corner of 47th Street and Queens Boulevard, McCall de Paloma praised the recent arrival of Shake Shack for keeping the corner very clean and bringing in lots of people. On the other hand, he said the new Chipotle at 40th Street and Queens Boulevard was getting multiple city fines for trash and snow removal violations, and he had been unable to speak to the manager. He said he always preferred individually owned businesses over the lately more frequent chains. “Individual places are local residents most of the time, they hire locally more, they put more money into the local economy,’ he said. “Sometimes [chains] can be decent … but for every Shake Shack you get a Chipotle.”
Some landlords, especially on Queens Boulevard, ask for “way too much” rent, McCall de Paloma said. He noted that while the concept of Commercial Rent Control had come up over the years, including in the City Council, it had never gone anywhere, and had also raised legal concerns for city lawyers.
Guttman praised Rockrose, a large property owner in Long Island City near Court Square, for making a concerted effort to seek out tenants to add value to the community.”He also praised the new Mamdani administration for an executive order to streamline fines, fees and regulations for small businesses. “That’s a great first step. A lot of these…requirements make sense, but the problem is sometimes they’re duplicative, sometimes they’re onerous.”
