1) West Village: Just months after UWS video store Movie Palace shuttered, downtown sees the city's latest Netflix victim. Reports a tipster, "TLA Video in the village is closing. The manager said they are losing money. They are only taking returns. No sale..they are packing up and taking it all to Philadelphia where they have other stores. The old theatre is where the Rocky Horror Picture Show ran for so long. Tears... THE END!" [Storefronting Inbox, official site]
2) Midtown West: A friendly neighborhood publicist emails, "The HBO Retail Shop is now open (right). Please check out this Flickr album with some of the in store merchandise as well as props from various HBO series that are displayed in the store." Hold on, publicists use Flickr now? For some reason, we find this massively disturbing. [Storefronting Inbox, Gridskipper]
3) Soho: The Shophound has word (and a hot Plywood pic) of Vivian Tam's new location: "the Northeast corner of Mercer and Grand Streets as the sole retail tenant at 40 Mercer." Score! [The Shophound]
4) Soho: An email from Nina Planck: "On a sunny and brisk winter day, I'm writing with news for the summer: we will not be reopening the South Village Real Food Market this year. With customers like you, a market for local and traditional foods would thrive on 6th Avenue. We won't reopen simply because this summer I don't have the time it deserves." Looks like the Petrosino Square location is kaput, too. [Storefronting Inbox, previously, official site]
5) Noho: It wouldn't be Bankfronting without news of a new bank: "New BoA going up at 315 Lafayette - the long empty space at the intersection of Lafayette and Houston (above). Note that there is a branch on Broadway between Houston and Prince, approximately a one minute walk away. I saw a crew in there at noon and asked what they were putting in. Sharing the joyous news with you was my next thought." [Storefronting Inbox]