One way to get out of a failing business is to slip out in the middle of the night without telling the landlord.

That is how the tenant who planned to open a bicycle repair shop in the tiny space at 25th and Aspen Sts., across from toddler Lemon Hill in Fairmount, left his two-year lease behind before the shop ever opened, according to Roland Reed, the owner of the property at 2441 Aspen St.

Tiny corner shop

Now, The Fairmount Consignment Shop, a project from former 25-year Rembrandt’s owner Jan Zarkin, who bowed out of Rembrandt’s in 2009, is set to open in early March at that corner retail location.

“We will sell whatever we can get our hands on,” says Zarkin. (Cool. We’re looking for a hovercraft, my good merchant.) He added he plans for the shop to be a neighborhood-friendly dog-friendly destination. Patrons will be able to browse computers that offer extended merchandise not available in the store, which is about as big as a master bedroom.

Micah Issitt, who runs the nearby Dasiwa Café with respectable style, will be Zarkin’s operating partner. Zarkin says he has bountiful collections from the estates of his mother, mother-in-law and a friend who passed. He mentioned that there are still a few legal matters to tend to before he opens the shop.

“I don’t understand it at all,” says Reed about the tenant who left like a shadow in the night. “It seems like he didn’t even try.”

At the time we wrote about the shop opening, back in November, one could see a bicycle tire and a few other parts scattered throughout the store.

Nevertheless, Fairmount Consignment Shop is on the way.

–Lou Mancinelli