Vacant stores may signal new development

Landlord won’t reveal plans for Riverdale Ave.

By N. Clark Judd

Riverdale Avenue’s hilltop commercial corridor is rapidly changing.

Gotham Driving School and Jasper’s Pizza are both moving this week — Gotham to a space on Mosholu Avenue and Jasper’s just down the hill — and a representative for Gotham’s former landlord, Jacob Selechnik, says the vacancies in his four storefronts are making room for something larger. Paperback Plus, adjacent to Mr. Selechnik’s building, also recently closed, creating a solid block of vacant storefronts.

Mr. Selechnik won’t say what will fill the vacancies he controls — but nearby shopkeepers have their own ideas.

Gotham Driving School ended its 32-year run on Riverdale Avenue this week after Mr. Selechnik refused to renew its lease. They didn’t want to move, said office manager Irene Goldstein, but with only a month-to-month lease, they had to join Yoshi Sushi, Designer’s Corner and their neighbor Top Nail in vacating the building.

“That’s something we didn’t want to do,” she said, “because how can you do business that way?”

Gotham found a new space at 5882 Mosholu Ave. and expected the last day of their lease to be today, July 31.

John Bindela, owner of Jasper’s Pizza, says the vacant storefronts in Mr. Selechnik’s building at 3720-3726 Riverdale Ave. contributed to his decision to move.

“It’s a lot of loss of business, it looks bad, it’s looked bad for years,” he said.

Between the vacant lots, ongoing work at a condo complex just up the hill, the recent addition of Con Edison workers tearing up the street to build a high-voltage power line, the spike in gas prices and the loss of business from Ethical Culture Fieldston School students — who are no longer allowed to have lunch off-campus — business has gone down around 20 percent, he said.

But Mr. Bindela isn’t going far. After 20 years, he’s moving to 3535 Riverdale Ave.

With Riverdale Avenue in flux, Mr. Selechnik’s next move could set the tone for the commercial corridor, one of Riverdale’s largest.

Elusive landlord

A controversial and somewhat elusive landlord — he was named to The Village Voice’s list of the city’s 10 worst landlords in 2006, and saw a demonstration at his Kingsbridge offices in February from residents of one of his Grand Concourse buildings who felt he was unfairly increasing their rent — he and his daughter, Ellen, are mostly known as players in the residential real estate market.

Brad Trebach, a realtor and vice-chairman of Community Board 8, said that Mr. Selechnik’s building is zoned for residential development with a commercial element.

“The early speculation would be that whatever comes in would probably have a strong retail component,” said Mr. Trebach.

Condo complex?

Mr. Bindela and another store owner across the street from Mr. Selechnik’s building say they were told he plans to build a condominium complex with ground-floor commercial space, but Jayson Blau, a lawyer for Mr. Selechnik, would neither confirm nor deny that rumor.

“I was just told, right now, our options are open and we are deciding what to do with that property,” Mr. Blau said.

In the meantime, said Mr. Bindela, the prospect of more construction on the hill is too much for him to take.

“Forget it,” he said. “I’m out of here. I can’t take the construction anymore, its ridiculous.”