Bluemercury, the luxury beauty retailer, is the incoming tenant for the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street, as these photos via EVG reader Laura K. show...
They are currently looking to hire "beauty junkies." (A nod to the area's "Taxi Driver"-era past?)
Gothic Cabinet Craft shop closed in January 2016 after 47 years in business on this corner. A listing showed that the asking rent here was nearly $30,000 a month. The owners of Brazen Fox across the street were interested in opening a bar-restaurant here, but those plans never took hold.
Early last fall, workers wrapped up the building with a sidewalk bridge and construction netting for "emergency" façade repairs... an EVG reader at the time wondered if this might be the end for the dinosaur mural ...
[Photos from last fall]
But! The workers came and went after a few months ... and the mural has survived for now...
Anyone know the back story of this particular mural?
Will they hire Ugly Junkies?
ReplyDeleteThe Backstory of the mural? I think it was an artist who was making a statement that the EV is extinct.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to add that Blue Mercury biz is owned by Macy's-sold for about $200 million in 2015 if memory serves. Makeup/skin care stores seem to be the new froyo in terms of proliferation and neighborhood penetration....
ReplyDeleteJust glad it is not another frat bar / juice bar / chain coffee shop / drug store.
ReplyDeleteAccording to that traffic signal (first image), it is either '9th and 13th', or, '3rd and 9th' - depending on where the photographer was standing when the photo was taken.
ReplyDeleteHow did Union Square become the makeup district?
ReplyDeleteThere's a Blue Mercury @ Broadway between 17th & 18th Sts. That will be two in the few blocks between my office and my apt off 3rd Ave - with 6 or more make-up and skin care surrounding Union Square Park alone. That's only half the number of coffee places, so I expect more coming soon...
ReplyDeleteUGH, gross mall store. So weird.
ReplyDeleteAdvance apologies for blathering. This isn't a bad spot for this store considering it's so close to Kiehl's and Ricky's. It's like a little beauty row.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I find this store annoying and smug and overpriced, and if I want that I can just go uptown (or way downtown woot) to Saks, where the atmosphere justifies the smug and the expense (and in reality Saks beauty people tend to be incredibly nice and give a million free fragrance and skin care samples).
Also, I agree that bluemercury (what does that even mean?) is a "gross mall store." Ricky's is an NYC institution, and Kiehl's has been in that spot since 1851!! So this mall store better not be hoping to take customers away from either of those homegrown businesses without a fight. I would not fuck with Ricky's — they will cut a bitch. (I say this with love btw)
Finally, a lot of what bluemercury sells can be found at Sephora right up the way at Union Square, and IMO you will never find nicer people than those kids at Sephora.