Meanwhile, the space at 241 Bowery that formerly housed part of the Bari empire is on the market... The Sunshine Hotel — one of the remaining Skid Row Bowery holdouts — hangs on upstairs...
It's a massive space — 5,000 square feet...and the number on the "for rent" sign is for "A Consolidated Auctioneers & Liquidators Incorporated," listed at 240 Bowery, home of the other Bari stores across the way...
And so the old Bowery remains on the clock. But how much time has the Bowery of Olde have left? And what will go into this big space? The Marc Jacobs Bowery Flagship?
I can't find the website, but several years ago, someone interviewed some residents of the Sunshine as well as one of the Baris and a guy who owned a building on Rivington and Freeman Alley. It was a great audio piece, done before any of this recent development. At the time, Mr Bari (not sure which one he was) said he planned to let the remaining Sunshine residents live out their days at the hotel and had no plans to sell until they were all gone. Methinks this was just a nice way of waiting for property values to rise - now that the New Museum is next-door, I'm sure he can get a pretty penny for that building. And, I wonder how many years any of those residents really have left in them.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could find that website or remember the name of it. I'm sure it's still out there somewhere.
Goggla, I believe this is the movie/website you're thinking of...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sunshine-hotel.com/
A couple of years ago, there was a court battle over the Sunshine, and the owners lost. But all that meant is that the residents were able to live another 5 yrs in the place. I think they only have 1 or 2 more years to go. Then who knows what happens. I'm sure someone knows more than I about the litigation's results, but clearly, the owners were trying to empty the building.
ReplyDelete@NYCDreamin - Thanks for the link, but that's not the one I was thinking of (good film, though).
ReplyDeleteI remember the website's homepage featured a 360-degree interactive panoramic photo taken from the middle of Bowery, near Stanton. This is going to drive me crazy now...the interview with the man from Freeman Alley was fascinating and heart-breaking. He talked of the drug dealers, junkies and homeless men who lived in the alley. It's stuck in my mind all this time, so I'll keep looking.
Does anyone know where the original Sunshine was? I recently saw "On The Bowery" at Film Forum, which showed the Bowery as it was in the mid 1950s. A lot of the filming was done in the Sunshine Bar + Grill, located on the ground floor of the Sunshine Hotel, which was larger and had different sidewalk basement entrances. In the film, I also saw a parking lot to the left of this Sunshine building.
ReplyDeleteI've been there a few times since seeing the film and have tried to reconstruct what I saw, but to no avail.
Anybody????