After 33 Years On Smith Street 'Smith Hanten Real Estate' Will be Moving

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The turnover of commercial tenants on Smith Street has accelerated in the past few months, as some long time restaurants have closed or moved.  The few remaining mom-and-pop are disappearing quickly and more corporate tenants have been moving in.  Now, ironically,  Smith Hanten Realty, one of the real estate agencies that helped turn little sleepy Smith Street into a vibrant commercial strip will soon have to move from their storefront at 165 Smith Street in Boerum Hill.
A letter in the window written to the community by head realtor Peter McGuire reads:

Smith Hanten is moving after 33 years in the same location,  Our store lease expired in May, 2013, and we have been month to month tenants since that time.  The only constant we know in life is change and in some ways we are a victim of our own hard work and success. 

As you look around Smith Street now almost every building has a commercial store whereas in the early 1980's when Ed Gerrity started this agency there were a lot of apartments on the ground floor because nobody wanted to open a business.  Subsequently, Ed found out that his ancestor James Gerrity (his Great Grand Uncle) worked as a Book binder in 165 Smith Street during the 1890's- 'tis a small world indeed. 

By the time I joined in 2001, Smith Street was in full swing and when I purchased the agency in 2008 a number of corporate tenants had moved onto this street.  It is highly likely that the next tenant in this store will be a corporate giant quoted on the stock exchange instead of a "mom and pop". 

We love and live in Brownstone Brooklyn and we believe the future is very bright so we never seriously considered closing our doors for a minute- our continuing mission is to provide housing solutions for landlords and renters and create wealth for buyers and sellers while earning a percentage commission (we are not communists, after all)- please keep in touch and visits us in our new location:-----between------and --------or please visit our website www. smithhanten.com or follow us on Twitter @ smithhanten. 

Thank you for your patronage and friendship over the years. It has been a true pleasure to make your acquaintance in 165 Smith Street and we hope to see you in our new location listed above. 

Peter McGuireLicensed Real Estate Broker

Obviously, Smith Hanten's new location still needs to be announced. Let us hope this long time business will stay nearby.  McGuire is probably right in predicting that 165 Smith Street will soon have a new 'corporate' tenant.  After all, it is a desirable corner store that will fetch very high rent.
Stay tuned.