‘Smallest’ store in US – half the size of a Smart car – costs $5K a month to rent in NYC

A West Village commercial space billed as “the smallest” in the nation is on the market for a very big price.

The 27-square-foot triangular shop at 169 West 10th Street is asking for $5,000 monthly rent.

For comparison’s sake, that is roughly half the size of a Smart car.

Broker Invictus Property Advisors insists the space is “the smallest retail store in the country.”

The corner property comes with an electric outlet and meter, but utilities including water and gas would have be pulled from the street.

The rent is a staggering 426% increase from the previous tenant’s fees in 2014 and translate to just over $185/square foot — roughly triple what you would pay for a 350-square-foot former cigar store on Christopher Street.

“Although small, the tiny corner store . . . commands a mighty premium,” Invictus managing partner Andrew Levine said, adding that the property has caught the eye of high-end hatters and artists.

On a recent Thursday, a 6-foot-tall Post reporter laid down on the sidewalk size up the tiny space, and the scribe’s legs extended well beyond one wall.

For 30 years, the Lilliputian lot was occupied by a Senegalese vendor named Balla, who sold African clothing and sunglasses while paying just $950 a month in rent in 2014 to the property’s then-owner, Dr. Abdul Awan, a Brooklyn family physician.

The longtime tenant left last year after Awan sold his corner for $190,000 to World’s Smallest LLC, according to city records.

“Someone can do business [there] as a one-person show,” said Minnie Dee, 38, a property manager and singer-songwriter. “This is location, location, location. They’re banking on that.”

Despite heavy foot traffic on Seventh Avenue South, many neighborhood locals were still shocked any businesses were entertaining inking a lease for the broom closet.

Juicers eyeing the spot “would have to sell a lot of juice to pay that rent,” Juan Vinas, a 59-year-old GMC parking garage manager joked.

Neighbor James Wilson, who lives two doors down from the space, wracked his brain for what venture could break even operating out of the shoebox storefront.

“If you had a lotto machine, you could make rent,” he said. “I don’t know anything else you could sell there to crack that nut.”  

The new owner is considering turning the space into the “world’s smallest pop-up store” with rotating three- to six-month lease terms, according to Levine.

The famously liberal neighborhood, overwhelmed by illegal pot shops, is hoping another one doesn’t take root.

“For sure, no weed,” Vinas said.