Another Boerum Hill Business Has Been Priced Off Atlantic Avenue

BOCOCA, BROOKLYN — Jesse's Deli has closed for good, unable to keep up with rising neighborhood rent prices. The news was first reported by Brooklyn Paper,

On Friday afternoon, workers were dismantling what was left inside the store, which has been located at 402 Atlantic Ave. since 1983.

Standing outside, owner Mohamad Itayim explained that he took over the business from his father in 2005.

In recent years, the company tried to negotiate a workable lease with property owner Bilger Design & Development, as DNAinfo reported.

But Itayim said the last price he was offered was $10,000 per month, an unsustainable increase of 250 percent increase over his previous rent.

A woman who answered the phone at Bilger's office on Friday declined to comment on the property.

While he struggled to stay afloat, Itayim drew attention to his cause by welcoming the artful, and headline-grabbing, protests of activists/marketing experts Tommy Noonan and Douglas Cameron, the duo behind Red Hook's fleeting "Trump Hut" earlier this summer.

At Jesse's, Noonan and Cameron re-branded standard products as "artisanal" delicacies, and priced them accordingly — Slim Jims, for example, were sold as "Hand-Cured Salami Tubes” for $5.99.

Later, shelf space in the shop's front window was listed on Airbnb for $329 per night.

“Set in a gentrifying neighborhood, this newly furnished semi-private room is separated from the 25-year-old Jesse’s Deli by a potato chips stand," the listing read.

Itayim said his plight is being felt by others in the neighborhood. He said the city should cap the amount landlords can raise business rents each year, and fine property owners that hold on to empty storefronts.

He said he's interested in opening another neighborhood store, though it would probably be a sandwich shop and cafe, because selling groceries doesn't make financial sense when major competitors like Trader Joe's are in the area. In the near term, though, he's going to "take a step back and evaluate the situation."

Two years ago, Itayim said, he "developed an ulcer, I was so stressed out" over the rent pressures he was facing. "But everything happens for a reason. It's sad to leave, but something will open up."

Pictured at top: the shuttered Jesse's Deli. Photo by John V. Santore