A developer has snapped up the site of a longtime Brooklyn Starbucks a few weeks before the coffee shop location is set to permanently close.
Union Square-based DNA Development has bought 166 Seventh Ave. in Park Slope, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Friday. The 4-story, mixed-use property and next-door 164 Seventh, sold for $6.8 million, according to the filing, which also indicates the deal for the prewar property went into contract Sept. 17 and closed Jan. 13.
The building, whose spacious and popular three-decades-old Starbucks will serve its last latte Jan. 31, does not sit in the neighborhood’s historic district or its several subsequent extensions, according to Landmarks Preservation Commission maps.
But DNA, which focuses on “ground-up development, value-add repositioning opportunities and adaptive re-use conversions,” according to its Linkedin profile, appears to be planning not a demolition of the 40-foot-wide property between Garfield Place and First Street but a makeover.
According to an application submitted to the city’s Department of Buildings Dec. 9, DNA is seeking to renovate the site’s six apartments, though officials have filed objections to the plan and not yet issued a permit, records show.
The site’s seller is a Park Slope fixture, Allen Brafman, the founder and former owner of the Little Things Toy Store, which launched in 1977 on nearby Berkeley Place before relocating about a decade later to 166 Seventh, according to an account by the local advocacy group Park Slope Civic Council. Brafman, who has owned Nos. 166 and 164 since 1986, according to the register, relocated his shop in the 1990s before leasing No. 166’s retail space to Starbucks, the council said.
Though Brafman has retired from the toy business, store employees said, Little Things endures with two locations, a corner offering at 159 Seventh geared toward younger children and a larger shop at 146 Seventh, whose classic board games take aim at an older crowd.
In line with a gathering national movement among Starbucks stores, the baristas at the Park Slope site voted in October to form a union to push for higher wages. Though Starbucks has apparently closed dozens of other stores in recent years, allegedly in retaliation for unionization efforts, it does not appear that the Seventh Avenue closure, which reportedly comes as its lease expires, fits the same pattern. The contract date of the building sale suggests a deal was in the works before its union approval.
Starbucks declined to discuss specifics about the closing but said it would try to find its baristas similar jobs. “We continually evaluate our store portfolio, using various criteria to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers,” said Starbucks spokesman Jay Go-Guasch in a statement. “We have engaged Workers United to discuss transfer options, for the 14 partners currently employed at this location, to continue working at nearby stores.”
Although some high-profile Starbucks shops have shuttered recently, including the July closing of a longtime outpost at Manhattan’s Astor Place, the coffee company hardly seems to be in retreat.
The coffee giant actually increased its total number of city locations in 2024, according to December’s annual State of the Chains report from the policy group Center for an Urban Future. Indeed, the chain’s total count last year numbered 328, up six from 2023, the report said, making Starbucks the second-most-prevalent chain in New York after Dunkin’, it said.
A phone message left for Brafman at Little Things was not returned. A message left for DNA principal Alexander Sachs, who signed documents in the deal, went unreturned as well.
