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Business & Tech

Vacant Stores Continue to Plague East Meadow

MAB Fine Wines & Spirits finally closes up shop; other empty storefronts persist around town.

The closing of East Meadow staple has highlighted the ongoing plight of vacant storefronts throughout the community.

The was unknown by both workers and residents in November of 2011 when it was rumored to be closing. Empty shelves left many wondering what would happen to the liquor shop, which had been in East Meadow since 1952.

A sign currently located on the front door of MAB stated that the store was “temporarily closing” as of Jan. 1. On the sign, owner David Kang expressed his gratitude for his customers’ support over the years.

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Other vacancies around the community include those at the empty former locations of and , as well as the available storefronts in the , among many others. According to Loopnet.com, a commercial real estate listing site, there are currently 14 listings for office and retail spaces.

“I think we have way too many vacancies,” East Meadow Chamber of Commerce President and owner Walter Skinner said.

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Despite the empty spaces, new commercial construction projects such as the “” on East Meadow Avenue and “” on Newbridge Road and Hempstead Turnpike continue to forge forward.

Skinner added that he thinks the vacancies have a lot to do with taxes and the price of rent. He explained that he just downsized his business from two storefronts to one because of the price of commercial rent.

“People don’t realize the taxes that commercial businesses have to pay,” he said. “The rent is getting crazy.”

Ibrahim Osman, manager of and an East Meadow resident, said that he doesn’t think vacancies around his Newbridge Road store are a problem, but he does see the difficulties some businesses are having around town.

“I do live in East Meadow so I do see vacancies and that businesses are not doing well,” he said. “Sometimes it is the landlord making it a little tough on the business owners.”

“I don’t see the situation improving soon because the landlords still have to pay taxes on those spaces and they have to make up for lost income for them to be leased,” Skinner said. “It takes them a long time to make up that money. I don’t know why they don’t negotiate lower rents instead of them being vacant, but I’m not the landlord.”

He added that since small businesses have to pay both taxes and rent, lowering the taxes could help. The taxes are "huge in East Meadow" for commercial property and a large portion of land in town is not taxed, Skinner said.

“Someone has to make up that money. As president of the Chamber I’m always pushing to shop local,” Skinner said. “I know some of [the businesses] tell me they are barely hanging on. It is really tight.”

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