>> Lights out at 1-800-Mattress on Montague Street (BHB/Sarah Portlock)

The brick-and-mortar outposts of the 1800Matress.com company are closing down nationwide after the company filed for bankruptcy in March, now marking yet another vacant storefront on Montague Street.

Sleepy’s then acquired the telephone and Web properties of Dial-a-Mattress in a $25-million deal, but shuttered its remaining 20 showrooms, according to a Montague Street Sleepy’s salesman and an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that details the company’s demise.

Thanks to Bornhere for pointing out 1-800-Mattres’ closing.

What would you want to see in the spot at 136 Montague St., near Henry Street?

Lassen & Hennigs owner Chris Calfa stands guard. (BHB/Sarah Portlock)

Lassen & Hennigs is making smaller cakes — and eating them too!

Now we present our interview with Chris Calfa, owner of Lassen & Hennigs. The longtime local catering giant at 114 Montague St. also owns two Monty Q’s pizzerias (158 Montague St. and 90 Livingston St.) and Court Order, a sandwich lunch spot (52 Court St). But rest assured, Brooklynites, Calfa said he isn’t going anywhere — even if this is the worst he’s ever seen it on Montague Street.
(For more in the series, check out our Montague Street in Crisis page)

Brooklyn Heights Blog: What do you see happening on Montague Street right now?
Chris Calfa, owner, Lassen & Hennigs: There are a lot of people closing up — there are a lot of sales, and everyone’s trying to draw people into their stores. It’s tough on the block now.

BHB: You’ve been here for a while and you’ve seen Montague Street go through economic periods of turmoil, but have you ever seen it like this? How have things changed?
Calfa: In the early ’ 90s it was pretty bad, but now, this is the worst I’ve ever seen it. At nighttime, it’s very slow at night now. It used to be a popular street in Brooklyn to come down, and now a lot of other neighborhoods got a lot better like Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, and people are just staying in their neighborhoods. Montague Street used to be the place to come, like 20 years ago. And now, it’s — well, there are other places to go.

BHB: How is your business? What are you doing to stay competitive?
Calfa: We’re down a little. We’re offering smaller-sized sandwiches and cakes, and we do our own challah. And we’re just keeping our quality the same.

BHB: Where do you see the future of Montague Street?
Calfa: It’s going to be all national tenants, and no more mom-and-pops. They’re going to be all gone, unless they own their own building — but even then, rents are too irresistible and the mom-and-pops are going to rent it out to the national chains because they are the only ones who are going to be able to pay.

BHB: But are you guys going anywhere?
Calfa: No. (smiling)

BHB/Sarah Portlock

Housing Works works!

Jennifer Jinks, store manager of the Brooklyn Housing Works Thrift, said people are still swarming the store, but regulars aren’t coming in as often. That said, during our interview, she was interrupted at least twice by customers bringing in their gently-used wares, and many others snatching up best-sellers (and an old baseball bat) at drastically reduced prices.

(For more in the series, check out our Montague Street in Crisis page)

Brooklyn Heights Blog: How has business been, judging the economy?
Jennifer Jinks, store manager of Brooklyn Housing Works Thrift: Business has been great — it’s been good. There are slight changes, here and there. Certain people may not come as frequently — maybe they come once a week versus every day. [People have] a little more hesitation in buying bigger pieces, like furniture. But overall, it’s been steady and good.

BHB: What do you see happening on Montague Street? What are your colleagues saying?
Jinks: I have noticed that my regular shops — Nine West, Aerosoles, even MAC down the street — don’t seen at all busy as they were in the fall and summer, and just the traffic I would say has lessened. Just in talking with people in the neighborhood, people that own wine shops or delis, they all say that their business has decreased very dramatically.

Former site of Heights Books (BHB/Sarah Portlock)

Miss the old Montague Street? “Degrade your property values!”

Up next is our interview with Tracy Walsch, owner of Heights Books, who recently made the decision to move to Boerum Hill (120 Smith St., between Pacific and Dean streets) from her longtime spot at 109 Montague St.

(For more in the series, check out our Montague Street in Crisis page)

Brooklyn Heights Blog: Montague Street is undergoing all kinds of changes — what happened to Heights Books?
Tracy Walsch, owner of Heights Books: Our building was sold and our lease was up at the same time. When they shopped, we shopped. Whoever was representing them was representing this space for much more than we ever had, or would pay for. It was the economy, but it was their call and we just assumed the new owner would ask much more, and rather than be in a place where we would have to negotiate, we took the initiative to shop for better digs.

BHB: Are you going to miss Montague Street?
Walsch: Yeah, I am. There are customers that probably won’t make it to our new location, so that I’m definitely going to miss that. I think our leaving is definitely representative of what Montague Street is now. I think that outside of Lassen and Hennings, Tango, and a few others, they’re all chains. And that’s ok, they have to make money too, you know.

Montague has been good to us but things are different now. It’s too bad because we did OK here, but business is business. I think that people sometimes forget that a used bookstore isn’t a community facility. We aren’t here because, to add another quirky and pleasant element to a neighborhood. We’re here just like Ricky’s is here. I have quotas, and I have to make money like anybody else. So if rents are high and people aren’t buying… well, yeah.

BHB: Anything that Brooklyn Heights residents can do to make sure Montague Street stays its classic same self?
Walsch: It’s a catch-22. We’ll spend money at the local businesses on Montague Street, but there aren’t anymore and they are interesting because interesting businesses can’t afford to be here. Degrade your property values so people won’t have high rents!

What IS happening out there?

Montague Street is a rapidly shifting shopping thoroughfare — in the last few weeks, at least eight “For Rent” signs have gone up in windows along the five-block stretch from Clinton Street to the Promenade, and we now have word that, nationally, Ann Taylor Loft is closing over 100 outposts. Even for the stores staying put on Montague, there are myriad signs noting sales and other incentives to entice customers to come in and shop.

Clearly, the nationwide economic crisis is affecting our Main Street — but, at the ground level, how is the economy affecting these shop owners’ bottom lines? What’s going to happen to Montague Street?

There’s been some talk of what’s going on, so Brooklyn Heights Blog went out and spoke with Montague Street stakeholders about these concerns and where how think the future will play out. We now present, Montague Street Crisis: Mall or Mauled? First up is our interview with Chelsea Mauldin, executive director of the Montague Street Business Improvement District.

Next, hear from Lassen and Hennigs owner Chris Calfa, Heights Books owner Tracy Walsch, and Housing Works manager Jennifer Jinks.

Please send us your suggestions of other shopowners you’d like to see interviewed. And, follow the series at our Montague Street in Crisis page.

Montague Street in crisis: Montague Street BID speaks

BHB: What is happening on Montague Street right now?
Chelsea Mauldin, Executive Director of Montague Street BID: Montague Street is chugging along. It’s obviously a tough time for everybody in business, including our local small businesses, but I think that everyone’s is going to be able to weather this storm.

BHB: Where do you see the future of Montague Street?
Mauldin: I think that Montague Street will continue to do what it does so well now, which is serve a really diverse population of New Yorkers. In addition to the Brooklyn Heights residents, Montague Street serves as a really vital retail location for everybody who works in the office buildings downtown. There’s a lot of shopping that goes on on Montague Street during the day time that comes from people who are visiting our neighborhood, not to mention of course the tourists who are visiting the Promenade.

BHB: So you’re hopeful that the Montague Street will be just fine, despite all the current vacancies?
Mauldin: I think Montague Street will be fine. We have some vacancies which are occurring obviously because it’s a really tough economic climate out there, and I would absolutely say to anybody watching this who lives in the neighborhood that if you want to see our very special mom-and-pop stores survive, then the way to make sure they stay healthy is to go there and buy dinner tonight at Lassen and Hennings, and stop by and see Stella at James Weir Florals and buy some flowers. The way to keep our small businesses in business is to visit them.

We also have some vacancies that are happening now for the normal run of things that happen in any business climate. We had a fire on the street recently and we had a building sell, and therefore the business that had been in that building needed to move as a condition of sale. There are always going to be those changes that occur on any retail strip. I think though that Montague Street has so much going for it: we’re so well located, we have so many attractions near the street, and the foot traffic on Montague Street is terrific. That attracts all kinds of retail tenants, local tenants obviously but also national tenants and ideally we end up with a really healthy mix  — a mix that serves people who live in the community but also a mix that serves all the people who visit our street during the day.