They are moving on up — to Greenpoint.
The Academy Record Annex, long a mecca for Brooklyn record hounds, is moving from Williamsburg to Greenpoint. The North Sixth Street store’s landlord sold the building to a developer a year ago and now the new owner wants the audiophiles out. The store opened in 2003 and its founder claims he is partially responsible for the overheating of Williamsburg’s real estate market and, in turn, his own displacement.
“I was one of the pioneering businesses on this block,” said Academy Records owner Mike Davis. “The neighborhood has changed so quickly. This [storefront] will probably become something like a J. Crew.”
In mid-September, Davis and his eight employees will pack up their approximately 75,000 records and 500 CDs and schlep it all to 83 Oak Street in Greenpoint, between Franklin and West streets. The new store will have about the same floor space as the half-a-block long Williamsburg shop, but it will be cavernous, with 20-foot high ceilings. Davis declined to say how much he will pay in rent, but said the cost will remain about the same.
The store is better off in Greenpoint anyway, according to Davis, because Williasmburg is not as hip as it used to be.
“A lot of the increase in traffic in Williamsburg is people who are not my customers,” Davis said. “Greenpoint is getting more hipster traffic. Williamsburg is more of the yuppie insurgent variety.”
Williamsburg’s tech start-up CEOs may cry foul, but one thing is certain: Greenpoint is fast becoming a go-to neighborhood for vinyl fetishists. Crate diggers in the northernmost Brooklyn neighborhood can already take advantage of Record Grouch, on Manhattan Avenue between Huron and India streets; Permanent Records, on Franklin Street between Green and Huron streets; and Co-Op 87, on Guernsey Street between Norman and Nassau avenues.
Academy may be new to Greenpoint, but Davis lives in the nabe and says he is unperturbed by the ample competition.
“I first moved to Greenpoint in 1992, but it wasn’t a viable place to have a record store back then,” said Davis. “Once I move [a store] there, it will be the best neighborhood in the city for records.”
The disc slinger also owns a store on 12th Street in Manhattan. At the Greenpoint location, he plans to throw an opening bash as well as plenty of in-store shows.
Reach reporter Danielle Furfaro at dfurfaro@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511. Follow her at twitter.com/DanielleFurfaro.
