NYCe Wheels closed its doors.
#76
Senior Member
I haven't lived in NYC since 2001. I bought my first folder from Gotham Bikes on West B'way. Are they even still there? It got stolen from my GF's apt. complex (now wife) bike storage area. She felt so bad about it that a year later she bought a replacement to surprise me with. From NYCE wheels. When we were shopping for a tandem I got talking with Bicycle Man upstate, and he said things are crazy down in the city. He was talking to the people at Gotham Bikes and they asked him how much he pays for space. He said $5,000. They said, 'that's what we pay'. He said, that's what you pay a month, I bought my building for $5,000!
I haven't been back to the city but I know that everything I knew has been priced out and I'm shaking my head at recent posts that refuse to acknowledge the FACT that greedy property owners in NYC know how to MAKE money on real estate that is not earning rental income. Not just NYC, everywhere in America. I believe there are something like 118M registered households in America and there are an EQUAL number of vacant homes! Houses should be cheap with that kind of vacancy rate. Are they? Commercial real estate, family dwellings, people in the know (or their tax attorney's) don't have to accept what the market will bear. They have no incentive to sell a property or rent it to make money. They can monetize their loss somehow and that makes more and more of them just hold onto vacant property all over the country even while new construction goes up right across the street.
I haven't been back to the city but I know that everything I knew has been priced out and I'm shaking my head at recent posts that refuse to acknowledge the FACT that greedy property owners in NYC know how to MAKE money on real estate that is not earning rental income. Not just NYC, everywhere in America. I believe there are something like 118M registered households in America and there are an EQUAL number of vacant homes! Houses should be cheap with that kind of vacancy rate. Are they? Commercial real estate, family dwellings, people in the know (or their tax attorney's) don't have to accept what the market will bear. They have no incentive to sell a property or rent it to make money. They can monetize their loss somehow and that makes more and more of them just hold onto vacant property all over the country even while new construction goes up right across the street.
M.
#77
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Michigan
Posts: 3,693
Bikes: Trek 730 (quad), 720 & 830, Bike Friday NWT, Brompton M36R & M6R, Dahon HAT060 & HT060, ...
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Just got a marketing email from NYCe Wheels, first since early December. They seem to be getting then back on-line. I have not check their phone, though. Only a few weeks ago it was permanently busy.
#78
Widely Despised
Years back ( c 2006) I had been considering moving to NYC after college but never quite came up with the money to do so. The last recession seemed to actually see rents go up, even, as people moved towards the city to compete over jobs. Seems like it just kept going. As I heard elsewhere before: "The landlord always gets a raise."
M.
M.
#79
Senior Member
My daughter lives & works in NYC. She just renewed her lease with no increase. I suspect this is because NYC has been losing population over the last couple years. As a landlord, I've raised rents when I could, but I've also had to lower rents, sometimes drastically when the market was bad. Like any other business, it has its complexities, ups, & downs.
M.
#80
Member
I got that marketing email too on 5/14. Looks like someone is still running it.
#81
Newbie
Join Date: Oct 2019
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Elephant in the room
Maybe we should talk about the elephant in the room which is that big box stores, principally WallMart and Target, sell over half the bicycles sold in North America, add to that all the toy stores and sporting good stores and then add online stores like Amazon and Bikes Direct. All of these sell inexpensive bikes so that people get sticker shock when they walk into an LBS. All I have to do is go look at the bike racks here at UPenn in Philly and see all the used and/or inexpensive bikes in the racks. Many of these bikes hardly get used as I see them getting so dirty from just sitting there. The same holds true of the Indego bikes in the station across the street from where I work. FYI Indego is the local bike share system.
Last edited by TKFull; 10-19-19 at 09:57 AM. Reason: Spelling correction