Plantworks Ends Its 40-Year Run Today Due to Exorbitant Rent Hike
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The Plantworks pack-up is nearly complete. After forty years selling greenery to Lower East Side denizens, the shop officially closes its doors at the end of business today. A call to the store confirms as much. We walked past 28 East 4th Street yesterday, and there’s barely any life left in there. Literally. The strangling scaffolding is just insult to injury…
For Plantworks, in business since 1974, the death was slow. Wilting, even. Its demise was preceded by the placement of a leasing sign way back in September 2012. The self fulfilling prophecy wouldn’t come to pass until earlier this month, though, when it was revealed that their rent was more than doubled to $34k per month.
Something soulless will most likely follow.
This is a total loss for the neighborhood. Much of the greenery in our own apartment is from Plantworks.
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