Condos To Replace Bargain Emporium

By Carl Glassman
POSTED OCT. 2, 2006

Bargain days are numbered at Ralph’s Discount City.

Plans are afoot to tear down the 43-year-old odds-and-ends emporium at 95 Chambers St. and build a 63,000 square foot condominium building. The new structure will extend through what is now an empty lot behind it on Reade Street and include an adjoining 1852 building that runs from Chambers to Reade. No closing date for the store has been set.

Last month, the project’s architect, Harry Kendall, presented the proposed new building to the Landmarks Committee of Community Board 1, which largely praised the design as a suitable fit among the five- and six-story buildings on Chambers Street, between Broadway and Church Street. 

 “I think its been very tastefully done for this block,” announced Roger Byrom, the committee’s co-chair.

Shoppers, informed of the plans by a Trib reporter, were less kind. 

“Get the hell outta here! Tell them they can’t do that!” exclaimed Sandra Warren, 38, who works at 26 Federal Plaza  “We very much need it around here. They have the same items at Duane Reade but it’s much more expensive. We’re talking about a dollar, but it’s my dollar.”

Exiting the store with their bright blue plastic bags filled with everything from pretzels, soaps and sodas to garbanzo beans, lotions, and disinfectants, most shoppers agreed that the loss of Ralph’s would mean higher prices for the small items they buy.

“It’s a home away from home, with discount prices for us working people,” said Frank Mitchell, 52, who works nearby at 2 Lafayette St. and goes to Ralph’s for “the good candy”—Snickers, Almond Joy, and Twix. “All these fancy restaurants have come in after 9/11 and us people who work around here can’t even afford to go there.”

Ralph Mizrahi, the store’s founder, is 81 and retired, dividing his time between homes in New Jersey and Florida. Reached by phone, his wife said he would not comment. Their son, Eddie, now runs the store, and he too declined to answer questions from a Trib reporter.

The new building will comprise 91-95 Chambers Street and 73-77 Reade Streets, with its entrance at 77 Reade. Ninety-Five Chambers, the 1852 building, will have its Reade Street face restored and its Chambers Street front will be new. There will be 31 apartments, from 900 to 2,600 square feet, with store fronts on both streets. The new building needs a variance from the city because its bulk exceeds what the zoning allows. To get that approval, the developer is restoring the 1852 building in exchange for the Landmarks Commission’s support of the variance.

For some in the neighborhood, no fancy restoration can replace the threadbare presence of Ralph’s, which together with its next door neighbor, Dee and Dee, has long been a hub for tight-budget shoppers. Barbara, a frequent customer who works in the city’s law department and did not want to give her last name, was both upset and puzzled.

“The people that are going to live in these condos,” she asked, “don’t they need to shop anywhere?”