L Train Vintage Takes Over Hardware Store on Broadway as It Expands Presence in Bushwick

L Train Vintage has added another outpost to its growing presence in Brooklyn, this time off the J train at the Gates Avenue stop on Broadway. The store, which opened in early October, has replaced the longstanding Broadway Krown Floor Covering Corp., better known as Krown Hardware, at 1325 Broadway.

The hardware store opened in the late ’80s when the city sold the property, along with the community garden next door and the empty lots behind it, to Mr. Bigs Adi Realty Corp. for $192,000, according to city records. Further down Linden Street are the notable rows that make up the recently landmarked Linden Street Historic District.

In 2017, Mr. Bigs Adi Realty Corp. sold the community garden and empty lots behind the hardware store to an LLC for $8.75 million, much to the community’s dismay.

The LLC then flipped it to another LLC – 1333 Broadway LLC – two years later for $16.695 million. 1333 Broadway LLC is in the process of building a 20-story tower on the site.

Mr. Bigs Adi Realty Corp. kept hold of neighboring 1325 Broadway, and the hardware store remained in operation until earlier this year. For months, closure seemed eminent, as items were sold and never restocked, forecasting a somewhat ominous future for the store.

Paul Matalon of Solomon Equities was listed as the owner of the two-story building in a permit application filed in May 2022 to expand it to seven stories and convert it into a residential mixed-use building with 37 apartments. In June this year, Mr Bigs Adi Realty Corp. sold the building — still two stories — to Broadwayper LLC (with signatory Juan A. Perez Samayoa) for $5.6 million.

The address listed for Broadwayper LLC is 118 Knickerbocker Avenue, the location of vintage clothing store Urban Jungle – another L Train Vintage offshoot.

L Train Vintage is, of course, named after the train line that expedited the exodus of artists from downtown Manhattan into Brooklyn. Over the years the store has expanded its reach across the borough and diversified its name, also operating as Urban Jungle and No Relation Vintage. It is known for its huge array of affordable vintage and frequently updated stock. The Broadway location is L Train Vintage’s sixth store in Brooklyn and seventh in New York.

[Photos by Anna Bradley-Smith unless otherwise noted]

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