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Yet another iconic New York City shop has unfortunately closed this week, tobacco shop Village Cigars at 110 7th Avenue South by Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.
The news, first reported by Curbed earlier today, is pretty shocking considering that no previous announcement was made regarding the imminent shuttering.
According to Curbed, rent-related disputes were behind the development.
Jon Posner, the single-tenant building's owner, told the website that Village Cigars had not been paying rent since last summer and, once it was no longer able to secure a tobacco license, the two parties signed a separation agreement requiring the shop to vacate the premises by February 7.
Andy Singh, the store's owner since 1998, instead claims that he had not ever stopped paying rent but, after falling behind during the pandemic, had to switch to a month-by-month arrangement.
As for the tobacco license, Singh told Curbed that he hasn't had one for a few years but, given his ten-year lease, he had plans to turn the shop into some other business—a scheme that Posner did not agree with.
Whatever the case may be, Village Cigars, which was born Union Cigars in the early 1900s and has been selling lotto tickets, candy, cigars and all sorts of smoking-related products to the community since then, is no more.
When asked about what will happen to the neighborhood-defining building moving forward, Posner tells Curbed that he is looking for a new tenant willing to keep the character of the space and treat it with the care that such a unique property deserves—despite the fact that Posner himself had listed it for a relatively low $5.5 million back in 2021.
Time Out reached out to Village Cigars and Andy's Deli next door, also owned by Singh, for comment but none was made immediately available.