Dan Horan, the president and chief executive of PK Enterprises, tells us that he closed Papaya King’s 14th Street location because a bagel store and deli gave him an offer on the lease. “We’re sorry to go,” says Horan. “We really liked that spot, but we’re finding real estate in New York City to be very expensive.” Really? No one will cut Papaya King a break in this time of flexible landlords? Horan says that while rents have gone down elsewhere, they’re holding strong for corner properties, which is where Papaya Kings need to be. In 2000, Restaurant News reported that Papaya King’s 86th Street location generated revenues in excess of $1.4 million per year — clearly, the 14th Street outpost fell short of that mark, and it might have had something to do with the neighbors. “We’re hanging in there,” Horan says. “We’re impacted when a big electronic store goes out of business next door. We want people out on the streets.”
Earlier: Papaya Purge: The King Is Vanquished on 14th Street
