Eli Zabar café moving, expanding Upper East Side location
By Eddie Small
April 14, 2021
Eli Zabar’s gluten-free café has leased space for a new and larger location on the Upper East Side.
Noglu, which Zabar and Frederique Jules opened in 2015, is setting up its new location at 1260 Madison Ave., on the corner of East 90th Street. The café inked a 10-year lease for 970 square feet of space at the address, and the asking rent was $300,000 per year, according to brokerage Judson CRE.
Judson Principal Nicholas Judson represented Noglu and the owner 21 East 90 Apartments Corp. in the deal. The space on Madison Avenue previously was home to the 90th Street Pharmacy, and 21 East 90 Apartments Corp. has owned the property since at least 1977, according to city records.
Noglu is moving to 1260 Madison Ave. from just a few doors down: 1266 Madison Ave. Both addresses, along with 21 E. 90th St., are part of the same approximately 11,000-square-foot lot, city records indicate.
New York’s retail sector was already struggling before the Covid-19 pandemic and has only worsened in the past year. Leasing in Manhattan dropped quarter over quarter and year over year during the first quarter of 2021, the borough’s seventh consecutive quarter of decline, according to the latest CBRE report.
The report also said, however, that retail could see improvement going forward, particularly given the vaccine rollout and reopening of malls, entertainment and sports venues, and indoor dining, which was recently allowed to resume at 50% capacity in the city.
Judson also predicted the city will see a busier retail sector moving forward.
“With the vaccine rollout and the warmer weather in the city,” he said, “we are anticipating more leasing activity from the hospitality sector in residential neighborhoods such as the Upper East Side.”