Friday, April 30, 2010

Blockbuster: 147 First Ave. set for demolition

Wow. EV Grieve reader Steph sends along the photos and word that 147 First Ave. at the corner of Ninth Street is being prepped for the wrecking ball... She walked by and workers were hammering off the lock on the front door. When asked, the workers said the building would be torn down.





The building has been sitting empty for several years... Angelica's Herbs was the last tenant here.

We'll have a lot more on this later...

9 comments:

gammablog said...

Those upper floors were always a mystery. I heard they were full of dusty bales of herbs.

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Are you kidding me?! I hate to think what will go up on this corner lot...

Jeremiah Moss said...

you've got to be kidding! this is big enough to put a massive hotel or some other monstrosity!

evilnyc said...

i'm hoping curbed is right and this will just be a renovation... not because what's there is great, but for the potential of what could be put in its place. (aluminum! glass!)

that corner always had a weird smell that i associated with that herb place... so i wonder if there really were bales of herbs up there. but then again, could have just been in my head!

HippieChick said...

Oh dear God NOOOOOOO!!! I live right across the street and although a renovation would be tiresome, a tear-down and rebuild would be a million times worse. It was bad enough when they threw up (I use that term deliberately) that horrible tower over Theater for the New City...I am NOT a happy person. Still, I guess it had to happen sooner or later...

Alexander Romanovich said...

Holy cow. The mystery shall soon end...

Anonymous said...

The building itself is in good structural condition although the inside needs to be gutted. Icon is leasing this property from the owner with an option to buy so I believe they are only allowed to do a gut rehab at this point. Tearing it down only becomes an option if they buy the building outright. There are plans on file with the DOB for interior renovations.

dmbream said...

Walked by yesterday as workers were finishing up.

I asked if they knew what was going in:

"Motel," they said.

Grain of salt, but we'll see...

http://eastvillage.neighborhoodr.com/post/602127157/walked-by-147-1st-ave-yesterday-as-some-workers

Scuba Diva said...

Sorry I missed this the first time around, but this was the warehouse for years that Paul, owner of Angelica's Herbs—sole storefront in building—used for his warehouse. According to him, it wasn't to become luxury housing, but given the market, who can really say about that.

He has owned several properties around the neighborhood, including the building I live in for a short time.