Big Apple Deli, the bodega at Montgomery Street, is temporarily closed for a significant renovation and expansion project. Employees said the afternoon the business is being transformed into a larger organic grocery store with a salad bar and outdoor seating. The project is expected to take about a month. The bodega is taking over a space previously occupied by a Chinese takeout restaurant. That business is already closed.
The six story tenement was sold last year for $3.5 million to a company linked to R.A. Cohen and Associates, a real estate investment firm with an office in Midtown. Since that time, the building has been receiving a major face lift, including renovations of at least some of the 15 apartments. Those apartments were described in sales sheets last year as all rent stabilized.
Big Apple Deli serves a diverse clientele, including people who live in the cooperatives across the street, residents of subsidized housing in the area and students and teachers from nearby schools. Before closing in the past few days, it offered almost no fruit or vegetables, with the exception of an occasional banana or lemon. Ownership of the bodega will not change.
This is great news!