Immaculate renovation

Just an update on the renovations at the Immaculate Conception Church on East 14th Street and First Avenue, which is not being converted into an NYU dorm.

Earlier!




Now!

Blue tarp down! [Repeat] Blue tarp down!

Tuesday at the Mystery Lot!



Now!






At least now we'll all be able to enjoy the new tags... As a reader noted the other day:

The tarp was down (still there, but down) this morning.

I'm not sure it means anything. A year or two ago a plastic fence was put up behind the chain-link fence. It was eventually taken down and as far as I can tell nothing had happened.

I like that lot. It looks just awful when they put stuff up to block the view.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Mystery lot singing the blues?

Mystery lot singing the blues?

All sorts of new developments here in the vacant lot (or mystery lot, as Curbed calls this space) between 14th Street and 13th Street east of Third Avenue... Aside from some colorful new tags, there's a mysterious blue tarp hanging on the 14th Street fence...





Your guesses are welcome as to what the blue tarp is for...

Previously on EV Grieve:
An appreciation: That empty lot on 13th Street

Another view of the Mystery Lot

Stuyvesant Grocery's three signs

I was going through the photos that I didn't use from the last few months, and I came across this one...



I took this about four or five weeks ago... I liked seeing all three Stuyvesant Grocery signs... Jill captured a better shot of it back in March...

On this topic... in case you haven't read it yet... Eryn Loeb writes about Stuyvesant Grocery here at The Faster Times.

Who's the landlord for the strip of stores that caught fire last week?

After the three-alarm fire wiped out the businesses on 14th Street and Avenue A, some residents began speculating about what might happen to the prime block of East Village real estate... The area here also falls outside the East Village/Lower East Side Rezoning ...

A reader says that the same crew who was doing work at Pete's-A-Place, where the fire started, has also been working on renovating Apt. #12 at 542 E. 14th St. at Avenue B. However, there are no permits on file with the DOB for this address.

According to the reader, the DOB has tried to get access to Apt. 12 without success. The workers allegedly don't answer the buzzer or door. There have been six complaints filed with the city since April about this unit. Among other things, the complaints include that the construction in the unit is causing the entire building to shake.

The 542 E. 14th St. building has had problems in the past... In August 2007, Curbed noted that workers ripped out the entire kitchen and bathroom in one unit and left a 12' x 6' hole in the floor in which the tenant could see into the apartment below.

Empire Properties owns 542 E. 14th St. as well as most of the rest of the block, including the fire-stricken businesses. Empire's holding company is the infamous Solil Management, which is the estate of famed real-estate investor Sol Goldman.

[Photo by EV Grieve reader Sergey]

Missing the Stuyvesant Grocery; plus Permacut relocates

This weekend, the fire-ravaged buildings remained shuttered on 14th Street and Avenue A after the three-alarm fire last week ... I didn't see any activity...



...though a fan of the grocery left a note...



Meanwhile, the folks at Permacut quickly relocated...good news. (Jeremiah had a great post on the Permacut sign last Thursday.)





Also, well, I don't know much about gut renovations... but this looks rather hopeless to me... fueling more speculation that this block will be razed.




Again, this is only speculation made by a few longtime residents... We all hope the business owners are able to rebuild here.

All fire coverage here.

[Updated 2:21] Oh, just a little radiation alert on 14th Street...

Several readers this morning have said more fire trucks were spotted on 14th Street... this time between Avenue A and First Avenue. No sign of fire. Per EV Grieve reader cheese: "Yeah, my friend called and said there were fire trucks out, street blocked, something about hazardous material trucks also." And there are other reports via Twitter... "6 Firetrucks outside of my apt, radiation alert in the East Village, "but its nothing," says Fireman. L train departing in 31 min? Insanity."

Has the all clear been given?

[Updated] Many thanks to EV Grieve Laura for the above photo from earlier today... She said the firefighters were checking something in the subway vents as well as walking around 14th Street too. Despite being told there were long delays on the L train, one showed up in four minutes.

[Updated] Jenn Doll has an update at Runnin' Scared:

We called the FDNY, who said that there was radiation detected at 442 East 14th Street (between A and First) via a routine meter read. The radiation is at "negligible levels" and "is not harmful to anyone; no injuries were reported." The issue is under investigation. There was no FDNY comment on whether it might be related to yesterday's three-alarm fire in the area.

Conspiracies: What next for 14th Street and Avenue A?

It didn't take long for the conspiracy theorists to say what IF yesterday's fire turns out to be suspicious ... after all, 14th Street and Avenue A is prime real estate ... and many of the storefronts along this stretch of single-level businesses have been for rent for months and months...

As I noted last summer: "This area on 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B is ripe for development. So when when the 'space available' signs went up last summer (2008)...Hello Marc Jacobs! Hello huge Chase branch!'"



Well... according to the Post, the fire started at Pete's-a-Pizza, where a welder was working on a fire-access door. There, his welding torch apparently set some grease on fire. And that was it.

Anyway, Rainbow took over a big space here last July.




The area here also falls outside the East Village/Lower East Side Rezoning ... Noted one reader, "a nice fat dorm here would solve NYU's missing square footage."

Anyway, I'm not suggesting that anything happened here aside from a terrible, accidental fire that destroyed four local businesses... but, it is something to think about... and we've been around long enough to see the unthinkable happen... luxury hotels on the Bowery? An NYU dorm popping up at the site of a venerable pool hall/concert venue//club?

Meanwhile, I've been told that the owners of Stuyvesant Grocery do have insurance. No word just yet on what their plans are. I meant to add that I hope all the businesses will be able to rebuild and reopen here.

(Updated 3:23) Stuyvesant Grocery after the fire

From the Post:

Essa Assabahi, 29, who works at Stuyvesant Convenience, watched from across the street as the shop burned.
"That's my job right there," he said. "Now I'm unemployed."

DNAinfo noted that the smell from the flames reached SoHo.

Photo by Sergey.

Blarney Cove survives the fire

And who knew that the Blarney Cove had a Twitter account? @blarneycove

The Blarney Cove is open!

And despite the fire a few storefronts away.... I called and they said everyone's fine and they were open for business. And patrons could be heard in the background to prove it....




[File photos]

(Updated 12:57) After the fire: No injuries reported

Still no injuries have been reported.

Now from NY1:

Firefighters from about five ladder companies are still working to contain a blaze on East 14th Street near Avenue A. The fire broke out just after 10 a.m. on the roof of a one-story building and became three alarms about an hour later.

At least four businesses including a pizza restaurant, a convenience store, a hair salon and a Jackson Hewitt tax preparation office were damaged in the fire.

No serious injuries were reported.

The owner of the 24-hour convenience store said he smelled smoke and heard commotion next door at Pete's-A-Place pizzeria, where workers were making renovations, and ran over to help put out the fire.

"At first when I smelled the smoke I thought it was a small fire so I could help with that one. I could really stop the fire," said the convenience store owner. "But when we went upstairs, the flames were very, very big, very intense."

There is no word yet on what caused the fire.

Streets in the area of the fire have been temporarily closed.

Photo via Sergey.

Update from the scene

Per a reader: "I don't think anyone was harmed, fortunately. The fire started in Pete's-a-Place and spread — flames were shooting up from the roof. I talked to the son of the grocery store owner and he said everyone was okay. The firemen broke out the windows of the grocery store, tax place, pizza place, and hair salon and sprayed water in the stores as well as on the roof. I think it's under control now."

Photo courtesty again of Sergey.

"The fire is gone, as well as the roof from the deli"

Per Sergey: "The fire is gone, as well as the roof from the deli."

Fire update

Per a reader: "The main damage seems to be to the Stuyvesant deli, Pete's-A-Place and Jackson Hewitt."

On 14th Street and Avenue A.

Breaking: Firefighters battling to keep fire under control at 14th Street and Avenue A

More up-to-the-minutes photos from Sergey.

Breaking: Fire on 14th Street and Avenue A

Many thanks to EV Grieve reader Sergey for these on-the-scene photos of a fire that appears to have started near Stuyvesant Market on Avenue A and 14th Street. More to come.

Making the rats feel at home in the Mystery Lot

Courtesy of the The Antagonist Movement. In the beloved Mystery Lot.