Commercial tenants who rented office space on the upper floors of 237 First Ave. at 14th Street were recently served with notices to vacate.
Among other tenants, the building served as an office for City Council District 2 and Council Member Rosie Mendez as well as Brian Kavanagh, a member of the New York State Assembly representing the 74th Assembly District.
Here's more about the situation via Mendez's blog:
The district office located at 237 First Ave., at the Southwest corner of East 14th Street, was also home to previous Councilwoman Margarita Lopez. Every commercial tenant in the tenant was served with a notice to vacate, including Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, who now occupies an office at 250 Broadway full-time.
This suite on the fifth floor has served constituents of Council District 2 for over two decades and the displacement is sad news to Team Rosie. As the exhausting search for affordable space within the boundaries of the district continues, we will be sure to keep you updated when we relocate.
Mendez's team is for now working out of 250 Broadway.
A rep for Mendez's office said, "I'm not sure why we were all asked to vacate but I can only guess they want to hike up the prices."
There are work permits on file for each of the floors here via landlord Noam Management Group.
Could it beeee…that the building is scheduled to be razed to become part of the upcoming Beth Israel/Mount Sinai complex? Not as far-fetched as you might think.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Rosie in finding affordable space. You and your predecessor (ML) did nothing as rapacious real estate developers ravaged the East Village.
ReplyDeletekarma
ReplyDeleteI second Anon. 9:21's sentiments. Hoist with her own petard, was our dear Rosie. (BTW that space was also the District Office for Antonio Pagan when he was the Councilmember.)
ReplyDeleteAcross the street at the northwest corner of 14th & 1st (Papaya King, the bodega next door to the west that always has a good number of empty shelves, the eye-brow place on 1st just to the north of Papaya King, and the now empty 2-3 story red building behind it on 1st ave that last housed the Indian or Pakistani restaurant)is ripe for development; I'm always surprised that it hasn't yet happened.
ReplyDeleteAll is not rosy for Rosie M, now you know how the rest of feel. Maybe you can find something in outer Queens, hey you might see some of your old neighbors living there.
ReplyDeleteMaybe THIS will open Rosie's eyes to reality!
ReplyDeleteI swear I was just looking at this building the other day and wondering when it would fall victim to the real-estate developers greedy mitts. If that retail space gets the boot then the building is coming down otherwise luxury condos or Scuba Diva is on the money.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Rosie could set up her office in O'Hanlon's? She who has done next to nothing to stop the disgraceful barification of the East Village would feel right at home in the evenings when all of the TV's are on sports events.
ReplyDeleteO'Hanlon's is a great local spot.
ReplyDelete...a barstool at the Moxy??
ReplyDelete