It was the high rent, not the high prices, that did in the popular D’Agostino supermarket on Seventh Avenue.
A D’Agostino spokeswoman confirmed this week that the grocery store, located at the corner of Sixth Street, would be gone at the end of the month.
“The store is definitely closing,” said spokeswoman Amy Krakow. “The landlord has leased the space to someone else.”
A source told The Brooklyn Paper that the rent had tripled. The high rent fueled renewed speculation that the giant space would be filled by a full-service Bank of America branch. The company tested the South Slope waters earlier this year when it opened an ATM-only location between Ninth and 10th Streets.
“The D’Agostino will become a Bank of America,” a neighborhood insider told The Brooklyn Paper. “I know the architect who got the job of converting it.”
Bank of America spokeswoman Tara Burke would only say that the bank “has not signed a lease” at this point. But Burke did not deny that the bank had looked at the space.
Larry Wittlin, the owner of the building, which also houses a soon-to-close Gothic Cabinet Craft, could not be reached.
The D’Agostino is the only supermarket on Seventh Avenue besides the Key Food at Carroll Street. Steve’s C-Town, is on Ninth Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
Some D’Agostino customers said this week they were sad to see it go.
“It was a well-run store that served a swath of the center Slope,” said resident Eric McClure. “[The closing is] a serious blow to neighborhood quality of life.”
