Photo courtesy The Downtown Alliance from 2020

DICK’S CUT RATE HARDWARE FACES CLOSURE
The Broadsheet has a great story on the imminent closing of Dick’s Cut Rate Hardware, at 9 Gold Street, which has been in Fidi for 70 years. Worth reading as a sign of the times — the building is being redeveloped, and this is the fourth time the store has moved over the decades. “I am heartbroken,” the owner, Shaul Yamin, told The Broadsheet. Yamin’s great-cousin Nathan founded the shop in 1956 after working for many years at another hardware store owned by a man named Dick. “The actual owner never came to the store,” recalls Yamin, “and Nathan ran it. So everyone called him ‘Dick,’ which made it natural for him to use this name when he opened his own shop.”

DOES NY NEED ANOTHER LUXURY GROCERY STORE?
The Times did a man-on-the-street feature on Meadow Lane a while back, here ICYMI. From The Times: “Meadow Lane, which shares its name with Southampton’s ‘Billionaire Lane,’ is just the latest in a flurry of curated, luxury grocery stores to open in New York City with a detonation cloud of hype. Amid the demand, online critics have been quick to question whether a luxury grocery experience in New York City can deliver on its promise — or if it’s appropriate.”

A CONCEPTUAL TORNADO
Curbed has an interview with Frank Gehry protege Gordon Kipping on the interiors at the now-closed Issey Miyake store — turns out the concept was a tornado made from titanium. “Kipping was Gehry’s teaching assistant before he was tapped for the unusual project. ‘Gehry called and said, ‘I’m sitting in my office with Issey Miyake,’’ Kipping said. ‘Two days later, I was standing in front of the space we’d leased.'”

COMMERCIAL TENANTS COMING BACK
Crain’s has a story on the overall improvement of the vacancy rate in commercial spaces in Fidi, but highlights the Tribeca building 255 Greenwich — that houses Target in the ground floor. From Crain’s: “All 13 stories of 255 Greenwich St. are occupied, except for a floor that once housed WeWork. The 600,000-square foot Class B tower, developed in 1987 and designed by Emery Roth & Sons, just refinanced its $147 million mortgage… It is mainly occupied by just three tenants: Borough of Manhattan Community College, the city’s Real Estate Division, and a Target.”