After 25 Years, a Neighborhood Institution is Replaced by a Franchise

Park Heights Stationers, the card and copy shop that was a Park Slope institution for a quarter century, will soon be replaced by a burger franchise.

A Five Guys Burger and Fries will open in the storefront on Park Place at Flatbush Avenue, which has been empty for nearly a year.

The loss of the beloved stationary store and its replacement by a Virgina burger chain with over 754 stores across North America signals yet another step forward in the "" of the neighborhood.

There is already a on Seventh Avenue at Sixth Street as well as three others already in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Heights, MetroTech Center and Bay Ridge). Two more are slated for Fort Greene and Cobble Hill. 

Local merchants weren't surprised that yet another franchise would replace the neigborhood staple – fewer and fewer independent store owners seem to be able to afford ever-increading neighborhood rents.

“This is a prime area. The rent is higher, sometimes drastically higher. Nobody is going to get rich today,” said Mario Spinuso, owner of next door.

Commercial rents in the neighborhood usually fall somewhere in the range of $5,000 to $20,000 per month (and rumor has it that Starbucks shells out an incredible $30,000 for its Seventh Avenue storefront).

Sharon Davidson, executive director of the North Flatbush Business Improvement District said she believed the store’s rent rose from about $16,000 to $22,000 before it closed. According to a sign left by the owners on the gate, the shop closed due to “the rising cost of operation.”

The menu at Five Guys is sparse – hamburgers and cheeseburgers, smaller hamburgers and cheeseburgers, hot dogs and cajun or regular fries. Prices are moderate, starting at $2.95 for the veggie sandwich, $3.19 for regular fries and $4.51 for the "little hamburger."

"We follow the philosophy of focusing on a few items, and serving them to the best of our ability," the company says on its website.

“I’m not a fan of chains,” said Amelie Chabannes, a 35-year-old artist who lives in Prospect Heights. “They break the links with the neighborhood,” she said. “They won’t help you if there is no cash in your wallet … and I usually don’t like their products.”

Hilary Fitzpatrick agreed. “A lot of chains are moving in. That stationary store was there my whole life,” said the 24-year-old, who grew up in Park Slope but now lives in Mill Basin.  She said she used to go to the store all the time as a little girl.

“They had great stickers,” she said.

But despite the obvious qualms about an international chain replacing a small neighborhood business, some said that they were just glad to have the space filled after nearly a year of vacancy.

“Of course we’re always happy to have our vacancy rate lowered,” said Davidson, who noted that the vacancy rate for the North Flatbush BID, which stretches between Grand Army Plaza and Atlantic Avenue, has dropped from 25 percent a few years ago to 10 percent today, with an expected vacancy rate of 5 percent by the end of the year.