Tiny Store, Huge Rent: New York City's Priciest Piece of Real Estate Yet?

While New York City is one of the most exciting and vibrant cities in the world to live and work in, paying rent can be a bit of a headache. In most surveys and reports, New York comes out to be one of the most expensive places to live in. This is evident as the median rent in the city is $3,735 per month or about 149% higher than the national average, according to apartements.com. This is true even for the most bizarre and tiny properties as well, like the smallest commercial place in the U.S. located in the West Village.

According to a New York Post report, a tiny, 27-square-foot triangular shop at 169 West 10th Street is available for a whopping $5,000 monthly rent. The shop, which is half the size of a Smart Car, is put up for rent by broker Invictus Property Advisors who insists that it is “the smallest retail store in the country.”

The Post suggests that the current asking rent is about a 426% increase from the previous tenant’s fees in 2014. The rent comes out to be a staggering $185/square foot.

“Although small, the tiny corner store . . . commands a mighty premium,” Invictus managing partner Andrew Levine told The Post. Levinge added that the property has already caught the eye of high-end hatters and artists as it gets a lot of footfall.

“Someone can do business [there] as a one-person show,” Minnie Dee a property manager and singer-songwriter told The Post adding that the brokers are banking on the prime location.

The Tiny Corner Store was Sold for $190,000

The Post reported that the corner store was previously occupied by a Senegalese vendor named Balla, who sold African clothing and sunglasses. Balla paid a monthly rent of $950 a month in 2014, to the former owner Dr Abdul Awan, a Brooklyn family physician.

Bala left the store last year and Awan then sold the corner for $190,000 to World’s Smallest LLC, according to city records.

Neighbor James Wilson, who lives two doors down from the space, couldn’t imagine a scenario where a business could make a profit by renting the shoe box. “If you had a lotto machine, you could make rent, I don’t know anything else you could sell there to crack that nut,” Wilson told The Post.

However, according to Levine, the new owners are looking to turn the space into the “world’s smallest pop-up store” which is available for a three- to six-month rotating lease terms.

This is not the first time that a tiny space in New York has grabbed headlines for big rent. Earlier, a home tour video showing a tiny studio apartment in New York's Murray Hill went viral not for its world-class amenities but the hefty $2650 rent.

The video, shared by ocr_realty on Instagram, showed a walk around of the cramped studio apartment with a bedroom that can hardly fit a normal-sized bed. Further, the closet area and the kitchen space were just for the namesake which left the viewers shocked.