Kent to Move into Long-Vacant Nicolaysen Storefront

After roughly two and a half years of vacancy, Erik Nicolaysen now has a new tenant for the first floor of his South Greeley Avenue building in downtown Chappaqua.

, which sells furniture and household items, signed a lease earlier this month and plans to open by Oct. 1 of this year.

Owner Michael Kalesti, who , will move the business from its location at 396 King St. in order to have more room. Currently, he leases about 500 square feet of space, but will take on nearly 2,000 square feet at the new location.

Currently, the inside floorplate is being altered to allow for a more open area, with and exposed ceiling and a concrete floor. Kalesti is aiming to have a "kind of industrial modern feeling inside the store."

Other factors Kalesti cited include the town's renovation of the South Greeley Avenue parking lot, as well as a chance to get more foot traffic, something he feels his current space does not afford as much of an opportunity for.

Kalesti had been looking for new digs for six months. In choosing Nicolaysen's building, on 77 S. Greeley Ave., Kalesti feels that he's getting a good deal, a nice landlord and a good quality building. While he will paying more in rent due to the larger space, he feels that he is getting more out of it because of the site's advantages.

For Nicolaysen, Kent will be his first tenant since real estate agency Houlihan Lawrence moved a few storefronts up the street. In the interim, he has allowed various groups to use the vacant first floor, from earlier this summer, to last fall, the later of which raised funds to combat childhood hunger.

Reasons that Nicolaysen cited for not being able to get a tenant included prospective organizations wanting to subdivide, as well as disagreements over what rental rates to have.

"It's not something that's subdividable," he said.

Nicolaysen is the proprieter of the , which sells insurance products and is on the building's second floor. He built the structure himself in 1972, serving as his own contractor, and even helped build an adjacent structure at 75 S. Greeley Ave., which is anchored by Wells Fargo as its tenant. The prior structure that existed on the site was built by Nicolaysen's father, also named Erik, in the 1940s. The elder Nicolaysen founded the company in 1929.

Erik Nicolaysen also has been involved in other areas of local life, including as a member of the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps. He also served on the New Castle Town Board in the 1980s.