[Photo from March 2016]
In March 2016, there were reports that the building that once housed Lucky Cheng's on First Avenue and an adjacent property on Second Street were in the process of being divided by new landlord Carmar Development, LLC.
Now, though, Uri Marrache, a principal at Carmar Development, is putting the two-buidling parcel up for sale for development.
Here's a news release on the property that arrived in our inbox yesterday:
The adjoining, L-Shaped properties enjoy combined frontage of 60' spread across East 2nd Street & 1st Avenue; buildings are comprised of roughly a 14,000 SF structure and boast around 12,000 SF of unused air rights; located in a versatilely zoned area. The properties can be acquired for $26 Million.
Both buildings are also available for Net Lease.
24 1st Avenue & 99-101 East 2nd Street are strategically located along the vibrant 1st Avenue corridor in the East Village. The properties are located within four blocks from Peter Brant's illustrious exhibition space at the celebrated artist — Walter De Maria's historic home; which has nurtured and pioneered a new era of artistic progress within the region. The Notable Art Collector & Industrialist recently purchased the legendary property for $27 Million.
A flurry of progressive & chic development projects have transformed the nature of the immediate area, further characterizing the region as New York City's most desirable destination to live, shop, and play. The New Museum and world-renowned eateries like Katz's Deli, Daniel Boulud's DBGB, Russ and Daughters; the emergence of several prominent art galleries; have all fostered the majestic aroma of the neighborhood.
These factors, coupled with the pre-existing dynamism of the investment & residential sales markets have paved the way for unwavering cultural and economic growth in the East Village and Lower East Side. All the while, neighboring development projects such as 215 Chrystie Street by Ian Schrager have registered sales at unprecedented condominium prices, thus cementing the region's aesthetic appeal and establishing the East Village & Lower East Side as amongst the world's most magnetizing neighborhoods.
The properties are ripe for a user who is seeking to benefit from the unparalleled retail presence on both 1st Avenue and East 2nd Street. The acquirer will also be able to creatively utilize the curb cut (on 99-101 East 2nd Street) and the vast ceilings, coupled with unique layout; while capitalizing on the underlying development potential of the properties. The acquirer is also certain to benefit from the inevitable reallocation of retail value from the neighboring corridors in SoHo & NoHo.
Here's an aerial view of the properties...
Hayne Suthon, who owned and and operated Lucky Cheng's, the cross-dressing cabaret, also lived in the building. She died of cancer at age 57 in June 2014.
She had been in a legal fight with the operators behind Pride and Joy BBQ, who were renting the space to open a 220-seat honky tonk. (You can read more about this lawsuit here and here.)
The East Second Street space had been home to an array of short-lived concepts in recents years, including Bento Burger ... Marfa... and Waikiki Wally's...
[Photo from last March]
Suthon had owned the property since 1986, paying $800,000, city documents show. According to public records, the address changed hands to Carmar Development in February 2015 for a little more than $9.6 million.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Myron Mixon's Pride & Joy BBQ now in the works for the former Lucky Cheng's space
Fire reported at incoming Pride and Joy BBQ on East Second Street
Myron Mixon lawsuit puts opening of Pride and Joy BBQ in question at former Lucky Cheng's space
More alterations for the Pride and Joy space
Report: Pride and Joy BBQ partners suing landlord Hayne Suthon for $22 million
Pride and Joy's unpaid electric bill
Seriously, what class of drugs does one ingest before putting pen to paper and composing such hyperventilating bullshit? "Majestic aroma"? "Progressive and chic developments"?" Pre-existing dynamism"? How does one "creatively use a curb cut", which to my knowledge is there to be creatively used by the elderly or disabled? And why is Peter Brant Referred to in All Caps, as if he is Some Benevolent Deity rather than just an Overly Rich Model Marrier? Regardless, I am sure we can look forward to both of these buildings being bought and demolished to make room for another eye-assaulting monolith filled with unwaveringly cultural morons. Oh, lucky us.
ReplyDeleteWasn't this also the former site of the Club Baths (don't ask me how I know that)?
ReplyDeleteYes NYCriag, when Chengs was still open one could go to the basement and check out the tiled room with the sunken floor which I assume was a pool. It was once a gay bathhouse and of course originally a bath for the local population which did not have for the most part running water or a bathtub in their tenement apartments.
ReplyDelete"A flurry of progressive & chic development projects" is just one of the most inane sentences I've ever seen in a real estate listing. Translate = tear this historical building down, build more housing for the entitled, destroy its history and make sure no new culture will ever prosper in the spot again. Oh and a billionaire will house his masterpieces a few blocks away although nobody but his friends will ever set eyes on any of it.
Hold a building for two years, sell it for three times the price.
ReplyDeleteWhen do we get to find out that many of these ridiculous real estate deals are just money laundering by Russian oligarchs, Asian billionaires, and Latin American drug cartels? Oh that's right, we already found that out in the NY Times, two years ago.
ReplyDelete@Gojira: You NAILED it!
ReplyDeleteBTW, the overheated writing in the listing convinces me that we are in a realn estate bubble that's about to burst.
I've always wanted a curb cut.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many times breathless cold callers from curshman and millichaps etc etc have called that corner building holding out. Thats the last straw we clutch at. People not selling up to developers.
ReplyDeleteIf this development company is so rich, can they afford to shovel the snow and clear the ice? Their blatant disrespect for the residents of the street makes me ill.
ReplyDeleteI remember when it was cave canum, and nouvelle Justine. I have photos of parties there since 86 and of the pool in the Jewish steambath in the basement. It was a fun place. It's part of my tours on hellfirepress.com
ReplyDeleteThey will probably knock them down and put up another glass monstrosity. The writer aced creative writing 101..just saying.
ReplyDelete@Entrain gonzalez - lege recte: Cave canem.
ReplyDeleteWow. Always hoped something would redeem these structures and keep the layered histories embedded within them. Not a day goes by when I walk by either building on either side and remember what they used to be, in my limited lifespan within NYC history.
ReplyDeleteWas lucky enough to catch the old Cave Canem from back in the day as a still-fresh noob to the EV nightlife scene after being in the city for a few years. I didn't know the history of the place at that time, but I remember going downstairs during a party there once and seeing all these guys in their underwear cajoling and gamboling in that bath pit, sloshing water all around as people fully clothed milled about above them, drinking and watching them have fun. I just thought to myself, "yep, this is New York City!"
I would go there again some time later, maybe a year later, this time because my roomie at the time was DJing in the downstairs bath space and since we shared records, I was his road dog and our friend vanned all our equipment and record crates from the UWS all the way down to the EV. We had came in through the downstairs front. The bath pit was drained and heads were dancing in it. I think we set up the tables in what must have been the old shower area. When the party was over, we left through the other end where the Wakiki Wally's side was. I had no idea they were connected. This had opened my eyes to how many hidden stories of interconnected underground old-school NY buildings were unknown to everyone on the surface except those who had the keys to open the doors and break down the walled-up entryways.
Hit up Lucky Cheng's after they opened many times, when it was just a quirky fun EV joint to pop over before the aughts and hipsterism and money culture made everything formerly cheap and accessible an event with a wait line outside the door.
Happy to have lived through and experienced those fun times, sad that getting older means seeing the stuff that made life worth living get torn down and replaced by soulless, shiny crap. It's why I still look up at all the buildings and venues of this city I used to go into when I pass by them walking around. Some are still there, some have been changed, a little more than some have been obliterated completely. Keep whatever doesn't fit as a digital photo on The Cloud firmly in your heart, y'all!