Simon Liu's art supply business to move after deal with Ratner

Simon Liu Inc., a highly-regarded art supply business with 25 employees on Dean Street within the proposed Atlantic Yards project footprint, has long been mentioned as a business threatened by eminent domain. Liu last year told the Daily News that he was seeking a new building but that all options were too expensive. (The 6/24/05 article, headlined Unfair & un-American, biz cries, came after the Supreme Court's Kelo eminent domain decision, and focused on another business outside Brooklyn.)

Now, however, Liu plans to move; the Brooklyn Papers reported, in an article this week headlined For gallery's last show, look up in the sky (p. 4), that Liu sold his building to Ratner several months ago. (The terms have not been disclosed; will Liu be allowed to discuss the deal with the press?)

"It's a real tragedy," gallery manager Leon Kalas told the newspaper. "Simon's gallery had become an important gathering palce for artists, and now it's all being destroyed."

A notice on Liu's web site states:
Simon Liu Inc. is moving the whole facilities to a new location. There will be no exhibition after June 02, 2006.
New gallery location and hours will be announced.