Community Corner
Trio of Stores Mirror Post-Sandy Business in Long Beach
Landlord of West End commercial building hopes to survive after one tenant leaves.
Three adjoining West End storefronts appear to serve as a microcosm of Long Beach’s post-Hurricane Sandy Long Beach business district. One business has survived, another has closed, and the other remains in limbo.
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Kwangsoo Song, who owns the building that houses all three units, said his business, Long Beach Valet Cleaners, at 883 W. Beech St., has suffered since it sustained three feet of flood water during the storm. He reopened in early December, but only on a temporary basis, since business has remained slow, at best.
“It’s been not so good,” Song, a native of South Korea, said in broken English while sitting in his store on the northeast corner of Alabama Street on Monday.
Compounding Song's woes, the owner of an upholstery shop, Tara Upholstery, at 879 W. Beech St., moved out of town and will not reopen, forcing him to find a new tenant to rent the unit. And the status of Beach Street Deli, at 881 W. Beech, he said, is still pending.
“Maybe another new tenant at deli, too,” he said. “Not sure yet.”
Song moved to the United States in 1976 and opened his cleaning business in the West End in 1988. Ten years later, be bought the whole building.
About the damage Sandy has caused him, he said: “This was bad news. It’s my life.”
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