Tea & Sympathy needs cash TLC amid rising costs
BY GABE HERMAN
There has been an outpouring
of support for local British restaurant
Tea & Sympathy since
its founder Nicky Perry started a Go-
FundMe page to raise money to help
pay its rising taxes, fees and rent.
The fundraising page was started
on Nov. 14. The funds will go to support
the shop, at 108 Greenwich Ave.,
which opened in 1990, along with the
two neighboring stores, the grocery
shop Carry On Tea & Sympathy, which
opened in 1994, and A Salt and Battery,
a fi sh-and-chips spot that Perry
launched in 1999.
After three weeks, the page has raised
more than $37,000 of its $100,000
goal, from 588 donors.
The page also features many supportive
comments, such as, “My daughter
and I have enjoyed delicious tea, food
and together time at this special place.
We want it to continue!”
Another person wrote, “I’ve been going
to T&S since they fi rst opened and
would hate to see them close. They are
a neighborhood institution.”
“I can’t read the comments, it makes
me cry,” Perry told The Villager. She
said the amount of local support has
been overwhelming, including people
constantly coming up to her on the
street and some offering to work in her
shops for free.
“It touches my heart,” she said.
“This isn’t really about me,” Perry
added. “This is about the city and what
is going on here.”
She said rents have skyrocketed, and
Nicky Perry’s trio of English-themed food stores on Greenwich Ave.
are being hard hit by property taxes, high rent and fees.
now total $28,000 for the three businesses.
Real estate taxes keep being
raised every year, and tenants like her
have to pay 10 percent of every tax increase.
Perry noted that she is fortunate to
have a good landlord.
“My rent is still high,” she said, “but
it’s not nearly as high as they could get
from somebody else, because I’ve cultivated
a very good, respectful relationship.”
Perry noted her landlord said that if
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
she paid the last two years in real estate
taxes, then he would give next year’s
tax for free.
“So I am a lucky person because I
have a landlord that does actually give
a damn,” she said.
The money raised online will be
able to pay off the real estate taxes, according
to Perry, “which will give me
a breather. And then I will see where
I am.”
Of the bigger picture, Perry said,
“What is happening in the Village? Everything
is shutting down and it’s happening
fast.”
She noted that local Tex-Mex bar/
restaurant Tortilla Flats closed after
35 years, and that she heard new prospective
tenants were being shown the
space on the last day while the Flats operators
were still packing up.
Molly Carew, manager of the Tea
& Sympathy shops, said she is hopeful
that the City Council will pass the
Small Business Jobs Survival Act. And
Perry noted there are good politicians
on their side, including Council Speaker
Corey Johnson and state Senator
Brad Hoylman.
“You can’t have a city that’s just for
the rich,” Perry said. “Bloomberg did
this.”
She added that Mayor Bill de Blasio
has continued the bad system, and that
before getting elected, he told her in
person that the S.B.J.S.A. was not going
to happen.
Carew said there needs to be an understanding
of the role that local shops
play in the Village.
“The reason people want to have a
business in this area and visit this area
is for places like this that have been
here such a long time,” she said.
Perry said she won’t be leaving without
a fi ght. “I’ll chain myself to the
railings if I have to. All I want to do is
pay my bills. I don’t care about money,
because I believe money comes second.
But I have to be able to survive.”
The Tea & Sympathy GoFundMe
page is at www.gofundme.com/teaamp
sympathy-need-your-sympathy .
Strand owner’s cautionary tale on landmarking
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA
The owner of the Strand Book
Store is calling for the Landmarks
Preservation Commission
to scrap its plan to landmark her building,
warning the designation would
devastate the 91-year-old company.
The 11-story building, at 828 Broadway,
two blocks south of Union Square,
is under consideration for landmarking
along with six other buildings after an
uproar from preservationists about the
approval of a 21-story “Tech Hub” on
E. 14th St. between Third and Fourth
Aves.
But the Strand’s owner, Nancy Bass
Wyden, is fi ghting the designation to
protect the bookstore from the “bureaucratic
noose of the Landmarks Preservation
Commission,” as she described
it at a public hearing on Tuesday.
“We care deeply about the building,”
said Bass Wyden. Her father,
Fred Bass, who died in January, saved
money for decades to buy the building
— anticipating the bookstore would not
survive rising rents unless he owned
the building itself.
Landmarking would burden the
company with the extra process of getting
additional L.P.C. approvals for any
changes or upgrades needed for the
building, she said. It has already taken
nearly two years for the store to make
repairs after a manhole explosion right
outside of it in early 2017, she noted.
Since then, the Strand has replaced all
its front windows and front columns,
and restored the facade with its original
granite — which Bass Wyden said
L.P.C. has lauded them for doing.
“There’s an irony, right?” she said.
The L.P.C., which has been chaired
by Sarah Carroll since September, will
hold a second public hearing on the
Strand in January.
“The Landmarks Preservation Commission
will continue to work with the
owner of 826 Broadway, home to the
Strand Book Store, to address her concerns
and ensure that this cultural institution
endures,” the commission said
in a statement. “L.P.C. successfully regulates
thousands of commercial buildings
across the city and we are sympathetic
and responsive to their needs.”
An L.P.C. spokesperson countered
Bass Wyden’s argument, saying technical
expertise provided to building
owners is provided at no cost. The
spokesperson added that 95 percent of
L.P.C. permits can be processed within
10 days.
Councilmember Carlina Rivera, who
requested that L.P.C. survey the blocks
south of Union Square for buildings to
designate, still supports landmarking
the Strand building.
“When we and neighborhood groups
asked the Landmarks Preservation
Commission to study potential historic
designation of the area south of Union
Square, I was excited to see this collection
of seven buildings listed among
their recommendations,” she said, in
part. “Now that the landmarking process
is underway, it is important that all
buildings on this corridor are considered
together because it acknowledges
the shared history and identity that we
are striving to preserve.
“I continue to meet monthly with the
Landmarks Preservation Commission
on further landmarking options for
Council District 2,” Rivera added, “and
I look forward to bringing further designations...
that recognize and preserve
our history.”
Bass Wyden said the company needs
fl exibility — such as if the store wants
to expand its events space or add an
interior cafe — particularly amid the
city’s rocky retail environment and
with competitor booksellers, like Amazon,
which Bass Wyden pointed out
just got a $3 billion tax break.
Andrew Berman, executive director
of the Greenwich Village Society for
Historic Preservation, accused L.P.C.
of “cherrypicking” the seven buildings
it plans to consider for designation
from some 200 that his group has recommended
as landmark worthy, which
included the Strand. He urged L.P.C. to
take a “holistic” approach to preserving
the neighborhood’s historic architecture.
8 December 6, 2018 TVG Schneps Community News Group
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