His monthly rent has climbed to more than $11,000 a month, from roughly $2,000 when he first opened. Produce costs have spiked under new tariffs. Utilities and fees keep rising. And customers already drained by soaring housing costs are buying less.
After being closed for more than a year, Mike's Pizza has reopened in Flatbush. The Bedford Avenue slice shop shut down in January 2025 after its landlord sold the property. It resumed operations last week at 5 Martense Street, just off Flatbush Avenue. Customers lined up for slices from the same team that previously operated the shop. The reopening comes amid ongoing redevelopment in the area that has led to the departure of several longtime small businesses.
San Pablo Avenue is a corridor in flux, with new apartment buildings rising where auto repair shops once stood and a diverse array of merchants working to foster attractive shopping districts in spite of stubborn vacancies. Now city officials are considering a set of zoning changes that could accelerate the pace of change, by allowing taller and denser housing developments that might bring thousands of new apartments to the avenue.
"They've left me hanging," said 59-year-old Lu Nicaj, whose 30-year tile-construction supply shop Eagle Tile is facing closure over the upcoming second phase of the behemoth Manhattan transit project. "I don't know the future. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I do not know what's gonna happen," he told The Post. "It's the whole David and Goliath thing," Nicaj said - adding that this time David might not win.
Georgia-based PulteGroup wants to transform the Homestead Shopping Center into a 147-townhome development, complete with about 20 affordable homes and 341 parking spaces. The three- and four-story project, located at 3521 and 3591 Homestead Road, also includes nearly 5,000 square feet of commercial space. More than 10 storefronts in the existing shopping center would be demolished, including one of the city's only Korean supermarkets and Chinese herbal medicine shops - and small business owners aren't leaving without a fight.