Photo: QueensPost
May 21, 2019 Staff Report
A long-time Sunnyside bagel shop is closing, following the fate of many stores on the south side of Queens Boulevard.
Dave’s Bagels, which has been located at 43-20 Queens Blvd. since 1982, will be shutting its doors for good on June 2. The closure follows the shuttering of two adjacent stores–AAA Hardware Locksmith, which closed March 31, and Riko Restaurant in 2018.
Pablo Perez, who has owned Dave’s Bagels for 9 years and has worked at the store since it opened, said that the landlord did not want to renew the lease. There was no discussion about a revised rent or new terms, he said.
“He said he wanted to demolish the building and put a new building up,” Perez, 68, said. “He’s going to wait until all the leases [on the block] end and start.”
Perez, who is from the Dominican Republic and lives in Manhattan, said that the landlord, OK Champs, notified him two months ago that he had to leave.
Perez said he was disappointed but the timing was not too bad. “I want to retire…perhaps go back to Dominican Republic.”
The bagel shop is one piece of a 9,500 square foot property that covers half the block, which incorporates the now shuttered AAA Hardware, Riko, as well as Amazon Pharmacy, Bajeko Sekuwa and Taiyo Foods, among others.
The owner of Amazon Pharmacy, which opened in March 2010, could not be reached for comment and an employee knew nothing of the lease. The owners of Bajeko, which opened last year, and Taiyo Foods, which opened in 2013, were unavailable.
The large corner property, comprised of a series of one-story stores, was purchased by OK Champs for $9.9 million in May 2018, according to city records. The property was up-zoned in 2011 to R7A, which typically allows for seven to nine story buildings.
City Planning
OK Champs has not filed for demolition permits nor has it submitted new building plans, according to the Department of Buildings website as of today.
The closing of Dave’s Bagels comes at a time when business on the south side of Queens Boulevard is suffering.
South Pole, which was a large store located at 44-04 Queens Blvd, closed in 2018 after being there for decades. The storefront has been empty since.
Additionally, several stores were wiped out between 45th and 46th Street on the south side of Queens Boulevard in a fire that engulfed the block in December. The site is still covered in debris.
There is no word as to the cause of the fire. In April, the FDNY said it was “still under investigation.”
South Pole at 44-04 Queens Blvd. (Photo: Nathaly Pesantez)
The aftermath of the Dec. 13 fire. (Photo: Nathaly Pesantez)
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39 Comments
I guarantee that slumlord paid off to get Romantic Depot to be a ticking time bomb to set off the faux-lux apartments on Queens Blvd. that unwitting transplants who can’t afford LIC will swallow up.
No bagels for Sunnyside until it behaves.
this place was FILTHY. Not a lose. But, i agree the landlord is rent greedy.
horrible bagels. Why wait? Demolish the building tonight…
From 46th Street and Queens Blvd. (Where Side Tracks stood) all the way to White Castle there are now only 3 active businesses on Queens Blvds south side. This urban decay is a threat to the entire neighborhood. Where is the idiot who always posts “where is JVB” on this “real” threat?
Why was the property upzoned? I once read tht corruption in US politics begins with zoning boards and their interactions with ‘developers’.
When I moved to Sunnyside from Chicago in 1994, Dave’s Bagels was pretty good, but starting in 2010, the quality went down noticably.
Because there is a housing crisis and it’s easier to upzone commercial areas than it is to upzone residential areas.
Is this a sign that I should quit my job and open a bagel shop in Sunnyside
please do, i’ll come help!
I’d love to see a good bagel joint in Sunnyside. Key word is good, though. Dave’s is pretty mediocre.
Well you gave me a future customer
You have no idea how badley sunnyside needs a bagel shop if you were to open one i promise i would be a loyal customer. There are no bagel shops in sunnyside and woodside currenlty. Diners, cornor bodegas they just don’t cut it when it comes to quality NYC bagels.
We need a good bagel place in this neighborhood. I think Dave’s was good (B+). Sad to see them go. If we get a great one it will be a huge benefit.
They sell bagels sandwiches at Chakra the new Turkish coffee & cafe on 44th and Queens Blvd. The coffee and food are delicious there!
I went this morning and I’m afraid the bagel wasn’t very good. Seems like a nice place though. The pastries looked lovely and the guys at the counter were very nice.
the fire seems more suspicious every day
This is a travesty, there are literally no more homemade bagels places in sunnyside/woodside. There is only one group of people to blame for this, its the hipsters of sunnyside, who have skyrocketed rent prices in sunnyside. Landowners are seeing the potential to drive out mom and pop stores and built high rise buildings. These hipsters of sunnyside are the worst with there dumb bike lanes and removing parking spots.
Hipsters love bagels!
Bike lane would help them get to bagels faster!
High rents? Suck but I’ve never seen that keep a good bagel place down.
Millenials ruined bagels?
It is not the hipsters, it is the upzoning. All these land owners have incentives to remove businesses and build bigger.
All of the incentive is to sell the property and build condos for sale because real estate taxes make holding onto property unprofitable. Assessments go up so the property taxes go up, so rents go up, causing assessments to go up. Then the tenants leave- but the taxes do not go back down. The city can effectively burn down small landlords without ever lighting a match.
…how did bike lanes cause a bagel shortage? Lmao!
That stinks…honestly the bagels were not the best but if you got them when they were fresh it was pretty good.
Where do sunnysiders get good bagels from in the neighborhood??
I head over to Astoria. Brooklyn Bagel. Long line and pricey but bigger bagels and better spreads.
Betty’s Bagels on Ditmars is better than Brooklyn Bagel, but don’t tell anybody.
D’oh!
I hope you use a bike lane, like a true Millenium.
if you want to just blindly blame an entire generation for all your problems, it will be more effective if you know what the word is, and how to spell it.
I assume you just heard a Fox News commentator say it once, so you just took a guess at the spelling, and you were close at least.
Millennial!
(I was only joking, I use the bike lanes all the time and I don’t even have any problems to blame anyone for.)
(PS I’ve never watched Fox News. Lighten up.)
damn it now I feel like an oblivious jerk lol sorry
We don’t. I loved the bagels here but worst service. Even a 3 person line meant 20 minutes wait. Hopefully a business owner can afford rent elsewhere we need one badly.
Got an everything bagel w/ vegetable cream cheese there the other day and it was delish.
We could do better when it comes to bagels……
Another knife in the back for the death of a neighborhood. Thank you landlords you’ve come to America and done well and killed a neighborhood. And thanks Jimmy VB. You’ve done a fine job here. Your prize for your lousy job is higher office. That’s New York politics.
This stinks! Dave’s is great, and the only bagel place in the area. What can we do to keep it?!
As the lights fade one by one in Sunnyside, the Darkside rises fast and furiously.
Ours once epic hamlet is becoming the Detroit of the borough of Queens.
I lived in Detroit for 30 years, I can assure you this is nothing like Detroit.., plus Detroit has bagels
Looks like a great spot for an Amazon warehouse or a huge residential building. The only two things that actually would be profitable unless they’re money laundering fronts. I mean really, a BJ’s sized sex shop. That one was going to rake in millions.
Crap! Even though they’re not the greatest, these are the best bagels I’ve found in the neighborhood.
Anybody have any other bagel recommendations?
Looks like a site assembly in progress. Does the same landlord own all these buildings?