About the swimming pool rumor at the former Cabrini Center

Last week, some neighbors adjacent to the former Cabrini Center were hearing rumors of an outdoor pool at the incoming luxury apartments on East Fifth Street and Avenue B... perhaps what would be the end product of all that jackhammering out back.

However! A resident spoke to the construction manager at the site of the former health care facility for elderly patients ... According to the manager, they are putting in an "at grade" recreation area, with benches and a little lawn/garden.

Per the resident: "We'll see."

Previously.

Will the luxury apartment building at the former Cabrini Center include an outdoor pool?

Well, that's the rumor anyway... some neighbors adjacent to the property are convinced of this development here behind East Fifth Street and Avenue B... perhaps the end product of all that jackhammering out back here.

The former health care facility for elderly patients continues to be converted into luxury residences via developer Ben Shaoul. DOB permits show 81 units here, including a rooftop "public recreation space" as well as retail space.

Previously.

[Updated] Excavation continues outside the former Cabrini Center on Avenue B

On Friday, a resident who lives adjacent to the former Cabrini Center noted the unbearable jackhammering taking place in the building's parking lot off Avenue B at East Fifth Street. The health care facility for elderly patients is being converted into luxury residences.

Today, another resident passes along photos of the ongoing excavation (pointing out that few of the workers chose not to wear hard hats for this job). The nearby resident refers to the work here today as "obscenely loud."









Here's a little video action of the work...



Not sure what's going on out back... workers jackhammered out the former parking lot. One local joked that they were putting in a pool. Hmm. More likely the pump service room, the water room, etc., in the basement.

DOB permits show 81 units here, including a rooftop "public recreation space" as well as retail space.

Previously.

Flashback: When 72 Avenue B was a luxurious 1,750-seat theater

On the topic of the new luxury apartment building on Avenue B and East Fifth Street ... here's a relevant EVG repost from Sept. 28, 2009...

-----

You'll recognize Fifth Street and Avenue B here...


But until 1957, it was a Loew's theater...


According to Cinema Treasures:

Loew's Avenue B is part of one of the great rags-to-riches stories of showbiz history. Movie mogul Marcus Loew erected it on the very site of the tenement building where he was born. Needless to say, his birthplace was demolished to make way for the luxurious 1,750-seat theatre, which was designed by Thomas W. Lamb and first opened on January 8, 1913, with vaudeville as its main attraction and movies thrown in just as fillers.

The Avenue B was the top Loew's house on the Lower East Side until the mid-1920s, when the circuit took over the Commodore on Second Avenue, which was a much busier area for entertainment and shopping. The Avenue B was reduced to playing movies at the end of their Loew's circuit run, and remained so until its closure around 1957-58.

As Cinema Treasures commenter Warren G. Harris noted:

The theatre cost $800,000 to build. In his opening night speech, Marcus Loew said "This is the most pretentious of the houses on our string, because my better judgment was over-balanced by my sentimentalism and my longing to do something better here than I ever did before." According to corporate histories, the Avenue B was never successful, but Loew's kept it running for decades as a memorial to its founder, who was born on the spot.

Top photo via.

-----

Postscript. Knickerbocker Village has this still (circa 1967) from its days as an abandoned theater.

Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation opened in 1992... and operated here until it lost its lease last summer ... after an unnamed family trust sold the building.