An L-Shaped footprint ready to make its impression on East Houston Street

In late November, the Mystery Lot of East Houston Street (the empty parcel on the south side of the street between Attorney and Ridge) hit the market, per The Lo-Down. The lot is going for $9.5 million.

Now, it appears more development is in the works for this stretch of Houston... The long-empty adjacent space is now for sale — at $4.6 million.

Here's the listing via Massey Knakal:

The subject property consists of 331 E Houston Street and 161 Ridge Street. 331 E Houston Street is a single story commercial building and 161 Ridge Street is a vacant parking lot. Together, the properties create an L-Shaped footprint with 25’ of frontage on E Houston Street and 20’ of frontage on Ridge Street. The lots have a combined footprint of 3,000 square feet and are located in the newly designated East Village/Lower East Side zoning district which is zoned R8A*. This zone provides an FAR of 5.4 for Residential use, 7.2 with inclusionary housing and 6.5 for Community Facility use which translate to a maximum buildable square footage of 16,200 BSF, 21,600 BSF, 19,500 BSF, respectively. Furthermore, the two lots are adjacent to two 25’ vacant lots on E Houston Street.

So. Combine all this and what do you get?

A Bowery skyline

At the Bowery and Houston a little while ago... photo by Bobby Williams.

Rentals likely at Houston and Suffok

[EVG file photo]

Two weeks ago, BoweryBoogie brought the news that the owner of parcels of land on East Houston — specifically the now-vacant 255 (above) — and Suffolk Street are seeking a rezoning here.

This afternoon, Crain's is reporting that bids are due tomorrow for the L-shaped space, where a building of up to 70,000-square-feet could be constructed. Those involved with the sale believe the new owner will go for apartments here. Per Crain's: "'The site is a great footprint in a next great neighborhood,' said Nat Rockett, executive vice president at Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which is marketing the site.

Here is 255 E. Houston, which will be demolished in the process, from a few years ago...

Oh, Christmas trees!

As you can see here, Christmas holiday trees and other holiday stuff are now for sale on East Houston at Essex...

In another month, the tree you select will be an excellent fire hazard... Enjoy the holiday season!

Meanwhile... no sign of trees yet outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery...

New mural for Chico on Houston and Avenue B

Chico (on a break at the moment the photo was taken) and company are painting over this ad on Houston at Avenue B... as you can see, someone has defaced the mural...

Noted

Billy Leroy, proprietor of Billy's Antiques, was rather alarmed by this scene the other night ... when the Hampton Jitney was discharging passengers at Houston and Allen ... we didn't realize that this location has been a drop-off location...

Temporary traffic light down at Houston and Norfolk

Well, that was a helluva 10-minute storm...

A reader delivers this report:

That quick storm that blew through the neighborhood tonight knocked down a huge temporary traffic light/street lamp pole and attached wires on Houston St in front of the Red Square building. DOT has been doing work here as part of the Houston St construction project and put up these temporary light poles a couple of months ago. As usual, looks like they went with the cheapest contractor and subsequently got shoddy, unsafe work. You can see the knocked over pole in the middle of the pictures. It looks like it wasn't secured to anything, and the concrete base was blown right over by the wind from the storm. The gold SUV across the street swerved to miss the falling wires and hit another pole, but shortly after drove away. Luckily no one else was hurt.

So will workers just prop the pole back up and leave it to fall over again the next time a thunderstorm rolls through?

Houston temporarily closed between A and B

And samo notes that Houston is closed between A and B due to the downed temporary light pole...

What are the rights of residents when it comes to an interruption in water service?

The Houston Street Corridor Reconstruction continues... scheduled to wrap up in 2013 (heh — right!)...

A resident who lives along Second Street between Avenue C and D has a question about water shut-off regulations as they pertain to projects by the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC).

According to the reader, "usually my building gets maybe a 12-hour notice for shut offs that will happen the next day from 8 am - 4 pm. They've even done this on a Saturday."

The water interruption affects all buildings on the north side of Houston/Second Street and Avenues C and D.

Last Wednesday, however, the resident said that officials gave them very short notice before shutting off the water all day, which interrupted plans and other business matters. Apparently officials can give less than 24-hour notice for any emergency construction, and all construction can be considered emergency for any reason (via 311).

The resident and the resident's neighbors have filed multiple complaints with the city and the field supervisor. One small victory — getting a couple days notice for the shut off last Tuesday, to then be followed up with no notice regarding Wednesday morning's interruption.

"We (my neighbors and I) are prepared to be flexible to support the infrastructure updates, but we need more notice and some input on timing and regularity.

Said the resident, "Can't help but think that if I lived on Park Avenue, the City might have a little more consideration for the tenants. Do I really have no rights as the City tells me?"

Anyone with any advice?

Giant white Timber Wolf spotted on Houston and the Bowery

Luckily, it seems as if Billy Leroy was able to tame the beast..

Another view from 1991

We've had a few items lately about 1991. (Such as this one.) Billy Leroy passed along the above photo from 1991 ... The future Billy's Antiques was called Manhattan Castle and Props .. as Billy noted in the photo, it was a time when cope were making frequent arrests in the middle of East Houston just west of the Bowery... and the MTA apparently didn't care if you sold MTA signs...

[Photo by Clayton Patterson, courtesy of Billy Leroy]

Jeep-minivan chase on East Houston ends in spin out

A quick eyewitness report from a few minutes ago via @talsafran on Houston near Avenue C:

"This Jeep was chasing a gray minivan. Ran red lights and spun out.

Everyone in the white Jeep ran out, the car's empty."

When surveyors make us nervous

We can't help but be nervous when we see things like surveyors at work outside Billy's Antiques on Houston... What are they surveying? What godawful thing is coming/happening next to this region near the Bowery?

And why do we hear rumors about something Starbucksy coming to the vacant storefront behind Pulino's?

Chico paints William and Kate

As I exclusively reported, a couple named Kate and William were married recently. And Chico was back in town to honor their union on Houston at Avenue B....

Photos by Bobby Williams.

The Mosaic Man has a home in the Lee

The Lee, the low-income housing development and training center on East Houston and Pitt Street, is nearly ready for occupancy. A spokesperson told me last fall that Lee developer Common Ground will reserve 104 units for formerly homeless individuals, 105 units for low-income workers, and 54 units for young adults at risk for homelessness.

Among the new residents: Jim Power, The Mosaic Man (along with Jesse Jane). Scoopy has an item on his new home this week in The Villager. You can read that here.

While this is all good news, Power is worried about the fate of his Mosaics — they'll likely be in the way of the Astor Place redesign. “I’m asking that Community Board 2 resign,” he declared, “because they thought that was a very good design — that’s ridiculous! This is still our neighborhood!”

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Lee expects full occupancy by March 31

On keeping 'street art safely pristine'

Nice piece in Artinfo about the ongoing drama with the Kenny Scharf mural on Houston and the Bowery. (Read the article here.)

The article, written by Emma Allen, focuses on the surveillance cameras and alleged 24/7 mural guard put in place by the wall's owner, Tony Goldman and his Goldman Properties ... to the article:

"There's no guard there now," countered Tony Goldman's prickly personal assistant, when asked if Goldman Properties had hired someone to protect the work. To which Goldman himself added in an email: "We had a guard there while the paint was drying," after Scharf touched it up. "There were many people in the street and we did not want the new paint damaged. The cameras remain."

And!

"While the guard may be gone, larger questions of whose job it is (if it is anyone's) to keep street art safely pristine persist. Beginning in 2008, the works created for the East Houston space — collaborations between Goldman and galleries around the city, from Deitch Projects to The Hole, to Kasmin — have been executed by artists whose 'street art' sells in galleries and at auction for thousands of dollars. And while it seems logical to try to protect such valuable, and often beautiful, artworks from the destructive impulses of ruffians, the Houston Street wall once in fact was the uncontested terrain of those who made art outside of, and often in opposition to, the art establishment."

And Billy Leroy has the best line, which ends the piece: " ... it's funny, five years ago no one gave a shit about the wall, and now it's become the epicenter of the art world."

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] 24/7 security guards now on duty at the Bowery-Houston mural

6:01 p.m., Houston Street, Jan. 31

At the Mystery Lot Jr.

East Houston between Attorney and Ridge.

Snow plows tagged, ready for action

On Houston near the Bowery.

Caught on tape: New installation for Houston and the Bowery

Back in December 2009, tape artist Sam Bassett put his signature touch above the Os Gêmeos mural at Houston and the Bowery. (You can see a photo of it here at AnimalNY ... Check out the video of it too.)



On Christmas night, Bassett installed another creation above Houston at the Bowery.... which goes west to near the location of Billy's Antiques...



I asked Bassett via e-mail about the creation, and whether there was a significance with this intersection....

"I placed it there because its a central point in Manhattan, the poles line up to form the triangle, because of Billy and Billy's, because of the painting wall there," said Bassett, who was arrested in November 2009 after attempting to tape up Sotheby’s.

He continued:

"The triangle points East which represents the direction the world rotates. When we meditate in silence we face East in honor of this fact. The triangle in the sky is meant to calm, protect and inspire. To do more with less. To translate the power of reinvention and stillness. To showcase the hidden space in between, when utilized, open great possibilities of life. This ribbon sculpture is my interpretation of a Tibetan Prayer Flag. For unity and wisdom"




Meanwhile, Bassett hopes to install another tape sculpture on the former Deitch Wall, where someone quickly removed his work back in 2009. "That tape sculpture was secured like Fort Knox with very thick appoxy so it was definitely removed on purpose. If you look up to that space you can still see the faint outline of the shape. I would like to replace that tape sculpture with a painting or another tape sculpture. Thought it brought lovely energy to the intersection."