Co-owner of the Juice Hugger, Kelly Keelo, said she will close her all-organic juice shop next month. The corner lot where the building sits will be converted into a new five-story residential building by a developer who bought the property earlier this year, property records and building permits show. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

CROWN HEIGHTS — A neighborhood juice and health food spot is preparing to shutter its shop next month because of plans to to build a new apartment building where its Rogers Avenue storefront currently stands, store owners said.

Juice Hugger, located at 85 Rogers Ave. between Prospect Place and St. Marks Avenue, will close on Oct. 15 after four years in business there, said co-owner and Crown Heights resident Kelly Keelo.

Keelo said she and her business partner Carl Foster will continue to offer their all-organic juice cleanse packages through online orders and at-home deliveries (they already partnered with a Brooklyn distributor to do so), which is how they started the Juice Hugger business in 2009 before opening their cafe.

But, ideally, the pair hopes to find a shared kitchen space in the neighborhood where they can make their products and eventually move into their own spot to do catering and events. To keep that plan afloat, Keelo and Foster are raising $50,000 online through the fundraising site Go Fund Me.

“We want to stay in the Crown Heights area,” Keelo said. “We live on Bedford and we’ve been in Crown Heights for about six years, but ... the way that these rents are escalating is just really too steep for the average business person.”

The shop’s original lease was set to expire next summer, Keelo said, but the pair received word from their landlord last spring that he had sold the building and, therefore, wanted them to vacate.

Building records show a company owned by developer DK Real Estate bought the property — which includes an empty lot and the brick building where Juice Hugger and a now-empty hardware store are located — for $1.2 million at the beginning of this year. The builders immediately filed plans with the city to build a five-story residential building on the property, followed quickly by a permit application to demolish the existing building.

An inquiry to DK Real Estate was not returned.

Keelo and Foster fought to stay in the spot until the end of their lease, but settled for October after a protracted back-and-forth with the previous owner, in and out of court, she said.

“We are tired, you know. The pressure of everything over the last year has worn us down a bit,” she said.

She feels particularly disappointed to leave a place where she feels there are few healthy eating options, she said.

“If I were to step out of my home to get something to eat, as someone who eats consciously, it’s very, very difficult,” she said.

The pair hope to use the move as an opportunity to tweak and test their existing product line, which includes dozens of vegetables and fruit mixes, a hangover cure and cashew-based drinks for non-dairy customers.

For more information about Juice Hugger, visit the store’s website.