Bay Ridge leaders hope for a quick sale of Third Avenue eatery

BAY RIDGE — A restaurant located on a busy Southwest Brooklyn street corner is up for sale and community officials are hoping for a quick deal.

The real estate firm Gama Group NYC has listed Chobana Grill Cafe, a Turkish restaurant at 8602 Third Ave. The asking price is $160,000.

The new owner would have to purchase the restaurant business and then assume responsibility for the lease and the monthly rent paid to the building owner. In a press release issued by Gama Group NYC, the real estate firm promises the restaurant’s buyer “will assume a new 10-year lease with favorable terms.”

The rent the Chobana owners were paying was not disclosed, but a Bay Ridge business leader estimated that it was likely in the range of $8,000 to $10,000 a month.

The eatery is located on the corner of 86^th Street and Third Avenue along Bay Ridge’s famed Restaurant Row. “It’s a corner property on a very important corner in Bay Ridge. I’m sure the rent wasn’t cheap,” said the business leader, who asked that his name not be published.

Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann is optimistic that a sale can be made for the restaurant. “I’m hopeful a new tenant will move in. It’s a prime location in Bay Ridge. It’s a heavily trafficked corner,” Beckmann told the Home Reporter.

The intersection is served by two bus lines, the B37, which operates on Third Avenue, and the B16, a bus that runs on 86^th Street.

“It’s a busy intersection. You see a lot of traffic there, as well as pedestrians,” Beckmann said, adding that two schools, P.S. 186 and Adelphi Academy of Brooklyn, are located a block away, at 86^th Street and Ridge Blvd.

Bob Howe, president of the Merchants of Third Avenue, said he enjoyed eating at Chobana. “The owners are nice people. And the food was very good. It’s very difficult to run a restaurant, or any business for that matter, in New York,” he told the Home Reporter.

Chobana sits on the ground floor of a four-story building at 280 86^th Street that contains residential apartments on the second, third and fourth floors. The building owner is listed as 280 86^th Street Realty Corp. LLC in New York City Department of Finance records. The owner purchased the building in 1997, according to city records.

The location housed Leo’s Casa Calamari, a popular Italian restaurant, for more than 10 years. The owner of Leo’s Casa Calamari moved his business to another location on Third Avenue a few years ago and Chobana, an eatery featuring a Turkish and Mediterranean cuisine, opened up in the spot last year.

Howe, who is leading an effort to establish a Business Improvement District on Third Avenue, said a BID would help business leaders attract new commercial enterprises to the avenue. BIDs are established through City Council legislation and operate under the jurisdiction of the city Department of Small Business Services.