A Beacon general store known for handmade candles, puzzles and small-batch pantry goods is finally crossing the Hudson. Solstad House General Store has signed a five-year lease for 1,200 square feet at 167 Mott Street in Nolita, marking the shop's first-ever New York City location, with plans to open its doors in time for the holidays.
The deal, first reported by Commercial Observer, carries an asking rent of $6,750 per month for the Mott Street space, which sits between Broome and Grand streets. Solstad House was founded in 2019 by Beacon residents Stephen Yount and Frank Roderick Martinez, according to the store's about page, which describes the shop's emphasis on hand-made and small-batch products. The Manhattan outpost will carry the same mix of home goods, food items, puzzles, personal-care products and clothing that Solstad House sells upstate.
Meridian Retail Leasing represented both the landlord and the tenant in the transaction, with Carson Shahrabani, Michael Escava and Noam Aziz all listed on the deal. Shahrabani told the outlet that Meridian reached out to Solstad House directly because the space seemed like a perfect fit, and that the tenant moved fast — the lease was signed roughly two weeks after that first email.
Why Nolita Made Sense for a Hudson Valley Favorite
Aziz said Solstad House has built a loyal following in Beacon, and that a sizable chunk of its customers already live in Manhattan. He added that the new storefront gives the brand an actual presence in the city rather than relying on upstate day-trippers to make the drive north.
The building itself has its own backstory. Property owner Emmanuel Stark purchased 167 Mott Street from Platinum Properties for $17 million in 2015, per the same account. The seven-story building includes 26 residential units, and according to PropertyShark, it's classified as a walk-up apartment building with more than six families and stores, built in 1900 with a total of 15,603 square feet.
A Tightening Market Behind the Deal
Solstad House's arrival comes as Manhattan's retail landscape keeps squeezing available storefronts. According to Cushman & Wakefield, the borough's retail availability rate fell to a historic low of 9.8% in the third quarter of 2026, even as transaction volume slipped 4.9% below the same period in 2025 to roughly 3.0 million square feet year-to-date. Average ground-floor asking rents climbed to $730 per square foot in the same quarter, up 2.9% from the prior quarter and 5.2% from a year earlier.
That squeeze has pushed demand well beyond the usual prime corridors. The Real Estate Board of New York reported that average asking rents rose in eight of the 16 Manhattan retail corridors it tracks during the first half of 2026, with storefront availability tightening across many of the borough's most competitive locations. REBNY noted that demand is increasingly spilling into residential neighborhoods and emerging retail districts rather than staying confined to traditional shopping strips.
Neighborhood-scale shops like Solstad House are part of a broader leasing pattern this year. Food and beverage tenants captured the largest share of Manhattan retail deals signed through the third quarter, accounting for 39.7% of the total, according to Cushman & Wakefield, while apparel and accessories tenants followed at 21.2%, concentrated mostly in SoHo and along Madison Avenue. Retailers overall inked 151 leases across the borough's 12 prime corridors year-to-date, the firm reported.
For now, Solstad House's Nolita debut remains tied to a single detail: an opening timed to the holiday season. No specific date has been confirmed beyond that window, but for the shop's Manhattan-based regulars who've been making the trip up to Beacon, the wait for a local outpost is nearly over.
