Monday, April 6, 2009

R&S Strauss has closed: What's next for the corner of East 14th Street and Avenue C?

We've been keeping our eye on the R&S Strauss auto parts store on East 14th Street at Avenue C. Last May, the building was reportedly quietly put on the market for $13 million.

The store is now closed. The location has already been removed from the R&S Strauss Web site.




According to the Massey Knakal Web site, the building was sold in January for $12.3 million. As the site noted: "The lot measures 114’9” x 88’and has a total buildable square footage of approximately 36,125 sq. ft. for residential use or 68,262 sq. ft. for a community facility, which will likely be the ultimate use of the property." No word yet on who bought the space.

News of a possible community facility is a relief for those among us thinking this sale could signal "an opening for the overall Meatpacking effect that is rippling up and down this main artery to reach deep into the East Village."

Still, probably not a lot of room here for development with Stuy Town to the north, the ConEd plant to the east and the Pedro Albizu Campos Plaza to the south.



13 comments:

Mykola Dementiuk said...

In the 60s I bought an ice cooler from R & S for about 10$ and paid with a check that I knew was going to bounce...got away with it too ;)))

But they fixed cars on Ave C, did a good job at it too...

http://timesqueer.blogspot.com/

NYC taxi photo said...

eh good riddance. The R&S Strauss was one of those old school chains that didn't like kids under 18 to be looking around in their store. Actually I think I was over 19 and owned a car at the time too, but they still knew that I was just browsing and didn't seem to think that I might buy something within a year or two. I vowed not to shop there again, but however I did because of the convenience. Again unfortunately, they never had the product I was looking for. That store sucked big time, and if it was replaced by anything it'd be better. If you need to buy anything car related, go to Queens, you'll find better service and more products.

I knew nothing of the fixing cars around the back, I thought that was an independent operation that used their driveway in exchange for purchasing their products. The city is no place for a car anyway, it's all a rip off.

Anonymous said...

hmmmmmm the R&S Strauss in Howard Beach sold out and closed too. It's been replaced by a HUGE T-Mobile store...

Anonymous said...

Glad to see this hunk of junk go. We shouldn't be encouraging cars or hoodlums. This store attracted both.

Jill said...

Please delete that last comment, it is noxious and has no place anywhere outside a KKK meeting.

Once I saw Jimmy Smits standing in R&S Strauss while they were filming NYPD Blue there. I was buying windshield wiper fluid.

Anonymous said...

Please DO NOT delete the comment, as it is important to see that some people still feel this way. I prefer to be aware of the racists that are still in the neighborhood. Plus I think the we much accept the good with the bad when it comes to free speech.

JillIIsAKnowNothingBitch! said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jill said...

It's so easy to be a racist when you're anonymous on the internet, though it seems that while you hate Puerto Ricans, you also hate girls who talk on iPhones, so which is it? What about Puerto Ricans who talk on iPhones? Must drive you nuts.

JillisObvouselyAspoiledPSeudo-LiberalittleTwitWhosePArentsPAyHerBills! said...

You're probably a bigger racist than I am. I do not pretend to be psudo-liberal (as you most likely are)..Try walking the streets on Acvenue D this summer (Walking not cabbing o spoiled one) and let's see how pleasant the o-so-poor local Spics are to you as a lone (presumably) white girl you are. Maybe your bag will be grabbed at or you will hear lots of 'Mira Mira, psst mommy ' (oh that's right its ok for Puerto Rican men to say that not a white guy)hurled at you..Then again if you are as skanky as you sound maybe not at all. So shuddup, hang in your (mommy or daddy-paid) condo and keep cabbing to n fro and do not judge a person who has lived there and thru it!

Anonymous said...

I've lived in this neighborhood for 30+ years ... Am I allowed to call you a racist? Because you very clearly are a racist. And I'm not any time of liberal (pseudo or otherwise)

Anonymous said...

I have lived in this neighborhood 50+ years and you are clearly an ignoramus asshole. The Puerto Ricans destroyed the LES clearly and simple. Whether it was burning cars, buildings, robbing, their truancy in school, drug addiction or teen pregnancies or their hostility/surliness they are a fucken waste community. You can shut the fuck up and move back to Pseudo-Liberalland. Me, I've lived with them too fucken long. I wish they all went back to La Isla Boriquena (Dont bother trying to trnslate you sound too ignorant for me)

Anonymous said...

A general sense of lawlessness is not because of a person's race or ethnicity. Walking along Avenue D is by no means pleasant -- I won't argue that it is -- but if the people there are any more unruly than people on the Upper East Side, let's say, it's simply a matter of economics. Poverty breeds discontent, plain and simple.

Anonymous said...

Typical pseudo=liberal trash talk. I grew up poor in that neighborhood. We did not
1.Set cars on fire (I saw the neghborhood children do that more than once)
2.Graffitize the buildings where we lived
3.Sit on stoops all day whooing and hollering at girls
4.Screw our first cousins/sisters (family members)
5.Deal drugs
or otherwise sink to the bottom. Povery of spirit comes from within. You and snot Jill above are such racists that you pretend not to see. There are many poor people and cultures. They are just not as destructive as the Puerto-Ricans. I have never seen a surlier/hostile/dangerous group in my life. They cam here willingly unlike the Blacks and yet they are more hostile.