[EVG file photo]
Real Estate Weekly files a puff piece on Bloom 62, Ben Shaoul's newish luxury rentals on Avenue B and East Fifth Street. According to REW, the 81-unit building is 82 percent leased some six months after making its debut.
To the article, titled "Hip young crowd planting roots at Bloom 62":
On a recent Friday, a group of young tenants was lounging on the terrace’s garden chairs, enjoying one of the last warm days of the year.
The smell of barbecue coming from the built-in outdoor grills and the blooming hydrangea summed up the building’s message: Just because you’re in Manhattan, doesn’t mean you can’t live as if you’re out in the country.
And what's the point of living in Manha... aw, forget it!
And!
The building’s brand new, polished exterior provides a stark contrast to its run-down East Village surroundings. Neighboring buildings are showing their age and sport the occasional graffiti over rusty fire escapes, leftovers of a time when the area was known more for its punks and basement clubs than for its fine dining.
But times have changed: “East Village” and “luxury rental” can now be said in the same sentence with a straight face. Coffee shops and restaurants are in abundance, and the Lower East Side, with its numerous clubs and bars, is just blocks away.
Oh boy.
The building's previous tenant was the 240-bed Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which provided health care for low-income elderly residents in the East Village. The center opened in 1993 and served 240 patients and employed nearly 300 employees. Cabrini closed for good on June 30, 2012.
Now excuse us while we throw ourselves on the built-in outdoor grills.
Updated 10:22
Here Curbed's headline on this REW piece:
Ben Shaoul's Bloom 62 Dances on the East Village's Grave
Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Ben Shaoul is the new owner of Cabrini nursing home, will convert to condos
Report: Local politicians reach out to Ben Shaoul as re-sale of the Cabrini Nursing Center seems likely
More details on Cabrini's closing announcement
Q-and-A with Patricia Krasnausky, president and CEO of Cabrini Eldercare
If you get one of the unit on the side closest to the cemetery we hope you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome
ReplyDeleteThe arrogance is just mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteReal Estate Weekly?? How do you dig up this crap? Hats off.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, that ass Shaoul is quoted: "People see their homes a personal oasis — an escape from the commotion of the city." Well, f*** your "oasis" and its crappy tenants, because they RUIN our homes! I hate all the noise and douchebaggery these disrespectful asshats bring to our neighborhood, and this is coming from someone who has only lived on this block for 5 years. You can love and respect the neighborhood if yo're youngish, but these idiots don't. They have their "suburban" garden on the roof; why go to Tompkins Sq Park and get to know the neighbors... And I'd *love* to hear Shaoul's comments on the drunken screams and taunting from his "oasis's" rooftop to pedestrians a couple of weeks ago.
Rage.
This is the same building that took delight in telling us how Jimi Hendrix would hang out on Ave B back in the day would most likely call the cops if he did that today.
ReplyDeleteThey forgot to mention the killer that live across the street, the one that made soup from his girlfriend and feed it to people in the park. How soon we forget.
ReplyDelete@kfbeau Stop it! You're making me hungry.
ReplyDeletei live in this building. can confirm that while there are some nice folks, there are a lot of obnoxious bros. also management is fucking horrendous- the fact that they call this a luxury building is a joke with all the maintenance issues.
ReplyDeleteyes, i am self-aware and realize what my complaint sounds like. but as a medium-time reader of this blog, figure some of you will relish in the fact that the building has a lot of problems.
The article makes Shaoul look like some kind of soul-nuturing hero:
ReplyDelete"Shaoul said Magnum helped Cabrini sell their license to another operator who took all of the existing patients, before starting with the redevelopment."
Simply not true.
All those tenants "planting roots" will be gone within a year, two at most. To be replaced by more of the same.
ReplyDeleteI spent many a weekend morning there with the folks at Cabrini. Was very sad to see them go. I wish sick old folks got as much attention from communities and charities as kids did. dancing on the grave is right. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI could never live there knowing how many people have died in the nursing home. The building must be so haunted.
ReplyDelete@ 12:11 PM
ReplyDeleteSo that makes that building different from any other building in this neighborhood how, exactly?
"Most" buildings in this neighborhood are well over 100 years old. Lots of people have died in them.
"The building’s brand new, polished exterior provides a stark contrast to its run-down East Village surroundings. Neighboring buildings are showing their age and sport the occasional graffiti over rusty fire escapes, leftovers of a time when the area was known more for its punks and basement clubs than for its fine dining."
ReplyDeleteJust fucking beyond belief...
just another bland, two-tone clone of architecture. ugh.
ReplyDeleteSickening.
ReplyDeletewhy would you not expect a Ben Shaoul building to have horrible problems. He is very consistent as one of the most evil and cost-cutting landlords of NYC. Even the NYTimes has written about him.
ReplyDelete"Roots"? If people were actually setting down roots, that would potentially be a positive. I understand "roots" to imply that one intends to live in the neighborhood for a long time, possibly for life and even to extend one's genetic stay over multiple generations. People who set down those sorts of real roots are more likely to actually care about the neighborhood as a community to be nurtured.
ReplyDeleteThese inhabitants sound like transients, who will treat the EV as their playground for a few years, with little concern and even contempt for long-time residents (as I've overheard expressed sneeringly about the "old people"), trash the place, then disappear with no regrets (and probably few memories since most of their neighborhood time was in a drunken haze).
- East Villager
Sorry the killer of the late 1980's who cut up his roommate lived on the corner of Ave C and 9th a few blocks north and a little east
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if the name of this place is an homage to Bloomberg? It ought to be!
ReplyDeletePraying for Karma.
ReplyDeleteAnother building next door to where I used to live for years in the Lower East Side before I was forced to leave due to greedy landlords and their obscene rents.
ReplyDeleteThis building is an example of what happens when you let real estate developers do as they wish. There is no thought to who they are displacing and how the community will be affected.
ReplyDelete7-Eleven, 16 Handles and Subway are considered fine dining? Ha!
ReplyDeleteAs I've said before; I hope they are haunted by the demented and the incontinent
ReplyDelete