8 Vacant Broadway Storefronts Face Demolition, Permits Show

ASTORIA, QUEENS — When Fatima’s Halal Kitchen in Astoria closed this April after its lease wasn’t renewed, neighbors immediately became concerned about real estate speculation; the beloved Chinese restaurant was the seventh business in a strip of eight storefronts on Broadway between 29th and Crescent streets to shutter during the past few years.

“There was a big 99 cent store that closed like four or five years ago, and they never even tried to rent it,” one neighbor told Patch, referring to Lanzee Department Store, which stood two doors down from Fatima’s until it closed in 2015. “My guess is that the landlord did not renew any leases because they will probably build an apartment building in that location.”

That guess is now one step closer to becoming a reality: At the end of Sept., plans were filed with the Department of Buildings to demolish the two adjacent buildings at 25-21 and 25-33 Broadway where those eight storefronts once stood. The buildings span more than half the block.

As of Wednesday, the demolition application is still awaiting approval.

Robert Lin, the applicant on both demolition permits, told Patch on Tuesday that he doesn’t know when the tear-down will begin, but said that it should take a “few days” once it does.

He also doesn’t know what will be built at the site — no new building applications have been filed yet, either — but some neighbors expect that it will be a high rise; as has become somewhat of a development norm in Astoria.

“This is terrible and we do not need another high rise in the neighborhood,” wrote one neighbor on Facebook, after the news of Fatima’s closing was announced in April. “Developers and big corporations keep destroying every great neighborhood in NYC,” another lamented.

The demolition means a permanent end for some of the block’s already-shuttered businesses, like Start Fresh Express Laundromat which closed this February, and Bakeway bakery which turned into The Grind NYC in 2019 and closed that same year.

Other businesses on the block, however, hope to survive for now by moving.

Sac’s Place, for instance, relocated from the block to Kaufman Astoria Studios in 2019 when its landlord would only renew the pizzeria’s lease on a month-by-month basis.

Pastel Art & Frame Digital Printing, which was the last storefront standing among the two buildings, moved to 28-03 34th Avenue last month, after its lease on Broadway wasn’t renewed, an employee told Patch.

Fatima’s Halal Kitchen also promised to move nearby when it closed, but so far the business hasn’t reopened. “Please check back later for our new location in near future,” the restaurant’s website says.