A sad dispatch from the Lower East Side today with news that Streit's Matzo Factory will leave its home of 90 years after the conclusion of Passover this spring. The Streit family—who've run the factory for the past five generations—sent word to Bowery Boogie via the documentary filmmaker chronicling the business that they had no choice but to sell the property to one of the many developers who'd been stalking them for years.
The "challenges of maintaining a manufacturing business in a drastically changing Lower East Side, as well as the pressures of increased foreign competition, left the company no alternative but to accept."
The family had owned and operated the factory in four tenement buildings at 148-154 Rivington Street since 1925 and were the last family-owned matzo factory in the country, producing 40% of the matzo sold in the United States. Though there are no concrete plans yet, the family hopes to reopen the business and retain as many of their 60 longtime employees as possible.
The company was also set to leave the LES in 2007, so there's always a chance they'll get a last-minute reprieve.
