The Real Deal is reporting this afternoon that developer Charles Blaichman has purchased the long-vacant Mystery Lot on East 14th Street for $33.2 million. Among other projects, Blaichman teamed with Jay-Z for a boutique hotel/development deal near the High Line that eventually imploded.
Excuse us: We need a minute to compose ourselves.
Previous Mystery Lot coverage here.
Nooooo!
ReplyDeleteMaybe OWS can camp out here...
ET is awaiting this, he is currently in orbit in his stealth spaceship. He will blast it to atoms. Anyway, my fantasy.
ReplyDeleteBummer. Had always dreamed of a huge a vegetable garden.
ReplyDelete123 Third Avenue has ruined my immediate micro-neighborhood enough.
Is it true, as I have heard, that there are height restrictions (or number of story restrictions) on buildings that do not occupy a major cross street or avenue?
In other words, can we hope that this will not be a particularly massive building in height?
Wow! Sure, it would be nice if the lot became, say, a park and not yet another shiny new development, but the city sure as hell doesn't have $32m sitting around, so development it is! I'm just glad it's going to be *something.*
ReplyDeleteI heard the new IHOP is slowly crawling across 14th street and expanding!
ReplyDeleteCan I swear in the comments???
ReplyDeleteWell, to be polite to fellow readers, I'll tone it down and say: crap!!!! This sucks!!!!
ET no longer will have a place to phone home to! Just as sad as that fallen down photo of him. We need to put up a tribute while we can!
ReplyDeleteDarn, the graffiti that you can see from 14th St. says Pac Man, so I was hoping that it would become an arcade or Showbiz Pizza.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Goggla. #OccupyMysteryLot
ReplyDeleteit was to be expected. unfortunately.
ReplyDeletethe history of the block is long and full of community involvement.
we lost most of our community some time ago and now we can only loudly or silently protest.
Does anyone know who owns the abandoned building across the street (across 13th street)? It's been empty for years.
ReplyDelete#OML!
ReplyDeletejesus save us from this ugly fate.
ReplyDeletethe empty building on 13th street was a rooming house that became a drug den when one of the owners died and his wife could not control some of the tenants.
ReplyDeleteit has a long, somewhat sad, history.
the city took it over but never figured out what to do with it.
the city has a website that lists owners or managers, violations, etc.
It was inevitable that it would be developed into something that would make money for some fat cat. I wonder if the street people who like to sleep on the 13th Street side will stay.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this in the area that was rezoned?
ReplyDeleteI can only pray that this lot will be eternally haunted by the ghost of Lenny Bruce, who played the Jefferson Theatre (which used to stand on the lot).
ReplyDeletethey made a b*llsh*t re-zoning law a few years back (the same one that allowed for destruction of the mars bar building) that you can build above the height restrictions if you provide "affordable" apts, or rent to a community center or dr's office or something to benefit the community. but time after time the developers just build whatever they want and NEVER get fined and those rules NEVER get enforced. a building in harlem for example they xdestroyed a community park and said they would out an asthma center in the ground floor, but then rented to a chain store intead with aboslutely zero repurcussion from the city. this city is a devlopers playfield these days, they can get away with whatever they want, and they know it, bloomberg's people always, always, always look the other way. it's criminal, and as a result this will be known as the age of mass extinction in NYC . their is alsmost zero protection for our architecture, cultural institutions, skylines, neighborhood integrity.. seems like anything that isn't landmarked is fair game for the vultre$.
ReplyDeleteAre you people really mourning the loss of that empty lot that looks like a scene out of the third world? You think that hideous blight is better than a new building? Really? Certain people in NY like living like feral animals. No one in Paris would mourn the loss of an empty lot, that's for sure.
ReplyDelete