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A UPS store is closing after operating for decades in the neighborhood, and a letter posted at the front of the store tells the whole story.
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The outpost at 119 West 72nd Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues) — open at this location “for about 35 years,” according to the letter — will have its final day of operation on Monday, April 6. The owner, Otis Davis, posted a six-page letter to customers explaining the circumstances in detail, pointing the finger at two parties: his corporate landlord and UPS’s own home office.“With sheer sadness, I regret to inform you that I have to close the store,” Davis wrote, citing the landlord’s demand for above-market rent and what he described as the UPS Store Home Office’s “sheer incompetence.”
Davis says his current rent is $13,500 a month — money the store doesn’t fully generate on its own. He writes that over the past five years he has repeatedly had to dip into personal funds to cover expenses and payroll. Despite that, his landlord, Walter & Samuels, is demanding $17,000 a month to renew the lease.
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When Davis identified a smaller, less expensive space just six doors down — 550 square feet at $6,300 a month — the UPS Store Home Office initially refused to approve the move. By the time approval came through, about eight weeks later, the space had already been rented. Davis says he proposed two additional locations in November and December 2025, both of which the home office rejected as well.
In the letter, Davis attributes the home office’s reluctance to a corporate push for UPS Store franchisees to occupy at least 1,000 square feet, driven by a desire to compete with FedEx Office on print services — a strategy he calls misguided for Manhattan, where rents make large spaces financially unworkable. “A 1,000-square-foot store lease is going to command at least $18,000 to $20,000 easily a month in rent in New York City,” he wrote, “which no UPS Store can come close to paying.”
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Davis also laid out the counteroffer he made to the landlord through his attorney: a 10-year lease starting at $8,000 a month and stepping up gradually to $12,000, followed by 3% annual increases. The landlord said no.ALSO READ: Two Closings on Columbus Avenue
He also referenced the departure of Tripp Singer, a Manhattan area franchisee representative who sold his territory back to UPS corporate in September 2022. Davis believes Singer’s absence removed a layer of local oversight that might have prevented the situation.
Davis is also the owner of The UPS Store at 2218 Broadway at 79th Street, which he says is not affected. Customers with mailboxes or packages at the 72nd Street location will be redirected there after April 6.
Sara Lewin Lebwohl, a reader who tipped us off to the closure, noted that the staff had always been warm and welcoming — and that losing them is what stings most.
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