Monday, November 20, 2023

In 2024, Bank of America will be moving on up on 2nd Avenue

Bank of America will close its branch on the NE corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street on March 11, 2024, ahead of a move to a new financial center three blocks away.

As we reported on Oct. 4, BoA will be the first retail tenant at the condoplex at 119 Second Ave. at Seventh Street... 
According to an email from the bank:
Come see us at our new location. We have ATMs, banking, lending and small business associates, as well as financial advisory specialists, ready to help you with your banking needs. Opening date: 03/11/2024.
The new building was ready for occupancy in mid-2021... six years after the deadly gas explosion destroyed this corner in March 2015 and took the lives of Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón

As for 72 Second Ave., that retail space has served as a bank branch since the building went up in the late 1920s as the Industrial National Bank. 

Daytonian in Manhattan has more on the history of the address:
The new building at the corner of Second Avenue and East 4th Street was completed in 1929 — just before the onslaught of the Great Depression. The architects had produced a startlingly different structure. While the base reflected the solid architectural elements expected in a bank — Corinthian pilasters separating rows of arched openings and a substantial bronze entrance surmounted by a clock — the upper floors exploded in color and fancy.

While the overall style was vaguely Renaissance Revival, the green and beige terra cotta spandrel tiles and the rope-twist engaged columns added an exotic air.  The arcade-like topmost windows, surmounted by a hefty balustrade at the roof, added to the Mediterranean feel.
Hopefully, the storefront will become something other than a smoke shop. 

2 comments:

M said...

Hopefully the new tenants will try to enhance their amazing space. When BA moved in they took out a lot the amazing old school bank architectural details and beat it with the bland American corporate ugly stick. However they did leave a few of the details. It was a beautiful bank to walk into. Hoping someone could find photos of it.

Richard said...

One of the few banks left with safe deposit boxes. (4th street location) I wonder if the new location will have them.