Eagle Cleaners (Staff photo by Joseph Ramos)
After his future dangled briefly over an abyss, Eagle Cleaners will stay in Williamsburg.
Last week, ARLnow reported that dry cleaning store manager Mathew Srebrow had a week to either buy the store for $ 250,000 or to close it. He said the policy came from the trustee who controls the ownership interest in Eagle Cleaners and plans to sell it.
This dispute was – for the time being – settled on Friday. The cleaning workshop can remain in place at least until the lease expires in five years.
“To cut a long story short … the landlord presented the trustee with an invoice for the cost of breaking the lease,” Srebrow said. “The trustee has no choice but to be here – now he’s asking us to be here.”
Eagle Cleaners has been trustee controlled and operated by Srebrow since his father put the company into a trust fund before he died of cancer in 2019. Trustees “could never have afforded it”.
Srebrow says five years is enough time to hire a lawyer and make an offer for the business.
“We’ll be here for more than five years,” he said. “As soon as I buy it, I’ll get another lease to stay here forever.”
Srebrow will reuse the money raised so far from its GoFundMe page for this purpose. He launched the site five days ago in hopes of raising enough cash to buy the business on the Trustee’s terms.
To date, the site has raised $ 8,760 in donations, and Srebrow recently set a new $ 25,000 goal to fund its new approach.
“The community has come together and has shown incredible support,” he wrote on the fundraising page. “We are open during our normal business hours. Thanks to everyone who donated! It looks like legal advice with the option to buy the store is needed to keep the store going [its] current way of staying open. The funds raised will be used for these efforts. “
Srebrow said he wanted to hire an attorney to make sure his bases are covered, that GoFundMe passes the draft, and that the events of the past week don’t repeat themselves.
“That was my father’s shop,” he said. “One of his wishes before he died of cancer was to keep the business going. That’s what I’m trying to do. “
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