Gone Local Goes Looking For a New Space

Memorial Day weekend has arrived, but instead of looking forward to what is the busiest time of year for merchants on the South Fork, one business owner is scrambling to stay open.

Gone Local, an eclectic store on Main Street in Amagansett, has to vacate its space of 7 years by June 13, according to Susan Seitz-Kulick, the owner. She said the landlord, Pat Trunzo, gave her one month's notice — one week ago Monday — the time legally required as she only had a month to month lease.

Soonafter the landlord, whose wife Michelle Trunzo first opened Gone Local, delivered the news, she posted a sign in the window: "Gone Local is moving. Where? We don't know. Our landlord decided to give us 30 days to get out."

"It was like a slap in the face and what do I do now? Curl up in a ball and cry?," Seitz-Kulick said on Friday, at the start of what merchants are expecting will be a busy, and profitable, summer.

Reached on Friday afternoon, Trunzo said it's an unfortunate situation. "We feel very badly about the circumstances," he said, adding that Gone Local was behind on its rent. "We have to keep the place rented. We need the income to pay our responsibilities," he said.

Innersleeve Records, which is currently across the street in the Amagansett Square, rented the space, Trunzo said. A longterm lease is in place.

"We feel very badly," he said. "Susan is understandably upset. Hopefully she will rebound and find another spot."

That's exactly what Seitz-Kulick is trying to do. She said she is working with real estate agents to find a new location, either for the summer, or for in the fall. She wants to remain in Amagansett, but is open to moving to another hamlet with good foot traffic, such as Montauk or Sag Harbor, as long as the rent is reasonable. She said she can only afford as much as $5,000 per month.

Seitz-Kulick, an East Hampton native, bought Gone Local five years ago after a partnership formed with Trunzo. She used to sell her handmade signs at the store when it first opened, and developed a strong passion for the business.

The stores sells a myriad of items, from 'Hamptons' signs to 'mermaid' dresses for kids, toothbrushes and other toiletries for travelers who may have forgotten something to local artist's work, like paintings, jewelry and even baked goods. Her sister, Nancy Nagel, who works at the store a few days a week, likens it to a general store.

Artists work featured there include Terry Elkins, Carol Saxe, Stan Einzig, Linda Edwards, Karyn Mannix and Joanne Small.

Choking back tears, Seitz-Kulick said she loves the store and isn't ready to call it quits. She said she feels as if she hasn't just lost the location, but also the business. "It's Memorial Day weekend. Where am I going to go?," she said, adding that she has "thousands of dollars" in merchandise she purchased for the summer that hasn't arrived yet.

She's worried about the cost of moving, and is having a difficult time even finding a place to store merchandise while she looks for a new location this summer. "I've called every storage facility from here to Bridgehampton and no one has anything available except 5-foot squares," she said. She's resorted to ordering a portable moving container.

The community has been wonderfully supportive, she said. A young man, whom she didn't know, stopped in Friday afternoon to tell her a space in Montauk had just recently become available.