Downtown Music Gallery may not stay downtown much longer...

[acroyear]

ANABlog: An Appeal from Downtown Music Gallery:

We have been searching for a new location for the past 6 months, but
if it's anything close to the 1500 sq. ft. we now occupy and need, no
matter how far east we go, the realtors are convincing the landlords
to hold off renting until they get a minimum of $ 60-75 per sq ft per
year - which for 1500 sq ft means a monthly base rent nut of
$7500-9400 - even on Ave D, where no one ventures to!

The only people who can afford that are banks that now make a tidy
new-found profit off of people taking $20 out of their account every
ten minutes [!] and national chains that take a tax loss to blanket
NYC with their outlets. No merchant who deals in anything but items
that have over 1000% markup [like drinks] can afford to stay in
business here, not even groceries and supermarkets, which have all
been closing rapidly. Just think: the overuse of debit cards has
caused the price of all everyday goods and food to skyrocket - most
of the increased amount just goes to the rent!

Anyone in NYC knows there are many spaces - in both prime and not
prime areas - that have remained empty for YEARS due to realtors who
have sold their bill of goods to landlords - when we've met those
landlords, many have lamented the money they've lost due to the
pressure from realtors, and were perfectly willing to talk lower
prices, when beforehand the agent said they wouldn't budge [and
wouldn't put us in contact directly, naturally]

I'm wondering if there's that similar effect in shopping malls these days, given the number of restaurants that have closed in the nearest mall to me in the last 3 months, one of which was a "$30 for two" meal that is now replaced by a "$80 for two" buffet (according to a friend).  Another mall in the area (Tysons Galleria Two) closed its food court a few years ago and replaced it with an upscale shop and an upscale deli (that's able to hold on 'cause it's getting ALL of the traffic that the court used to get).  Fast food in a mall just doesn't have the markup to remain competitive with their out-of-the-mall siblings - you can't charge $5 for what a regular shop charges $4 for, but you can't afford to charge just $4 and make enough to stay in the building.

ridiculous...and they wonder why the overall cost of living in this town is so damn high.