Report: Hotel Indigo, home to the rooftop bar Mr. Purple, is for sale

[Image via]

The Indigo Hotel, with 294 rooms at 171 Ludlow St. between East Houston and Stanton, is on the market.

The Commercial Observer has the scoop on the property, which first opened in November 2015 via a joint venture between Brack Capital Real Estate and InterContinental Hotels Group (ICG):

The hotel, one source with intimate knowledge of the property said, would likely go for $600,000 per key, or $176.4 million, because it is the flagship Indigo for IHG. Highlights, he noted, are the higher-end finishes and room designs as well as the unobstructed views from all sides of the building.

The hotel includes Mr. Purple, the 15th-floor restaurant and bar, which drew sharp criticism from locals when it was revealed that Adam Purple, aka David Wilkie, the longtime LES activist and community gardener, was the inspiration for the space. (Purple died in September 2015 at age 84.)

The restaurant, operated by the Gerber Group, stuck with the name even after reports surfaced that Purple had served time in prison in the 1960s for sexually absuing his daughters.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] The upscale hotel bar with a pool named for the late environmentalist Adam Purple

[Updated] The Gerber Group responds to criticism over Mr. Purple (23 comments)

As the Hotel Indigo and Mr. Purple continue efforts to be part of the LES neighborhood

Adam Purple's legacy

Noted

A photo posted by MR. PURPLE (@mrpurplenyc) on Jun 18, 2016 at 8:35am PDT

The New York Post checks in with a piece on how awful some rooftop bars are in the city, including Mr. Purple on Orchard Street between Houston and Stanton.

An excerpt:

The reality is that you have to wait an hour to even get to the roof, then another half-hour to purchase a can of beer, and your friends are still stuck in line while you’re surrounded by bottle-service-loving blowhards who flock to rooftop bars like moths to a flame.

Such was the scene on a recent Saturday at Mr. Purple (180 Orchard St.) on the Lower East Side. Young guys clad in white calf-socks and baggy khaki shorts nagged the bouncer at the ground-level waiting area, a glorified alley decorated with too-cheery pop art, and loudly contemplated whether they should slip him some cash to cut the line, as the coolest kind of people do.

They didn’t have any luck, but a gaggle of girls who entered screaming, “None of us are over 21!” did. The 15th-floor view is, admittedly, pretty great, with clear views of both the World Trade Center and the Empire State Building, though most of the patrons seemed more interested in staring at their iPhones than taking in the sights. If you don’t post a selfie and spend all evening checking your “likes,” did you ever really make it up onto the roof?

Meanwhile, the June 20 edition of The New Yorker has a short review of Mr. Purple.

Per writer Sarah Larson:

Aiming for a kind of neighborliness, the proprietors named the bar after the eccentric L.E.S. icon Adam Purple, a community-garden activist with a dark past, offending locals and relatives alike. The luxury-on-Ludlow vibe is equally uneasy. The interior, meant to evoke an artist’s loft, leads to two outdoor patios, with chaise longues, purple chairs, staggeringly gorgeous views, and a swimming pool. “This is horrible!” a neighborhood man said on a recent night, scowling. “It’s like a disco bar in Thailand in 1995.”

And!

And how are the drinks? In an age of near-universal craft-cocktail excellence, they are mediocre, pricey, and boldly unsubtle, served in acrylic.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] The upscale hotel bar with a pool named for the late environmentalist Adam Purple (44 comments)

[Updated] The Gerber Group responds to criticism over Mr. Purple (23 comments)

As the Hotel Indigo and Mr. Purple continue efforts to be part of the LES neighborhood (25 comments)

Adam Purple's legacy

[Photo via BoweryBoogie]

There were three articles published during the last week of 2015 related to Adam Purple's legacy, including the new bar operated by the Gerber Group that bears his name at the Hotel Indigo on Ludlow Street.

Purple, aka David Wilkie, was an environmentalist and activist known for his elaborate Garden of Eden on the Lower East Side. He died on Sept. 15 at age 84.

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1) On Dec. 26, The New York Times published an article titled "Meant as Homage, Bar’s Naming for Downtown Squatter Is Perceived as a Slight."

Per the article:

By nearly any measure, Mr. Purple — a dedicated ascetic who lived in an abandoned tenement, got water from a hydrant, read by candlelight and kept warm with a wood-burning stove — is an odd symbol for a 24-story hotel with “spalike bathrooms” and a terrace swimming pool.

“The gentrification, the consumerism, it’s the opposite of everything he stood for,” said the photographer Harvey Wang, who began documenting Mr. Purple, whose birth name was David Wilkie, in 1977. “It’s just appalling.”

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2) On Dec. 28, BoweryBoogie posted an op-ed written by Purple's grandson, Steve Mason.

Per the post:

“Mr. Purple” is not an honorable tribute. Believe me, I would love for David’s legacy to be memorialized, and I’m happy that he achieved notoriety enough to be considered for exploitation by a midtown corporate property development committee. However, a fancy hotel bar is not the right vehicle. At best, it’s tone deaf.

In an email to us on Dec. 28, Mason wrote, "I only found out about this travesty [on Dec. 27]. He and I were not close, but this is horrifying and I've been sick to my stomach for the last 24 hours over it."

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3) There's a lengthy investigation in the current issue of The Villager dated Dec. 31 titled "The dark side of Purple." Editor Lincoln Anderson puts together the activist's past through a series of phone conversations and an exchange of documents and letters with Purple's two daughters, step-sisters Jenean and Lenore, who say that their father sexually abused them while growing up in Australia in the 1960s.

Per the article:

Asked what specifically Purple did to them or had them do, [Jenean] said, “Oh, everything — that’s what we were about — our purpose. He trained us, with pornography magazines, films, comics. I read ‘The Kinsey Report’ when I was age 10.”

According to Australian court documents obtained by The Villager, Purple served a two-year prison sentence for the molestation charges at Long Bay Penitentiary in Sydney. (In a letter dated from March 1967, Purple proclaimed his innocence to the children’s maternal grandparents, "asserting that his second wife was not a fit guardian for his daughters.")

One of the daughters, Jenean, told The Villager that Purple himself was sexually abused by his mother as a child ... and that his mother was also a victim of "generational sexual abuse."

As The Villager concludes:

Hopefully, the two narratives can somehow coexist and inform: on the one hand, the story of a family that finally healed from domestic sexual abuse, and, on the other, a man who built a new life for himself — and a glorious garden — on the Lower East Side and left a lasting legacy of environmental consciousness.

You can read the full article here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] The upscale hotel bar with a pool named for the late environmentalist Adam Purple (44 comments)

[Updated] The Gerber Group responds to criticism over Mr. Purple (23 comments)

As the Hotel Indigo and Mr. Purple continue efforts to be part of the LES neighborhood (25 comments)

As the Hotel Indigo and Mr. Purple continue efforts to be part of the LES neighborhood

We’re toasting to a new neighborhood to explore + new discoveries made at #mrpurplenyc. Cheers! #HotelIndigo pic.twitter.com/VI0CFMDKgQ

— Hotel Indigo (@hotelindigo) December 10, 2015

The recently opened Hotel Indigo on Orchard Street continues to try to make inroads with the local community. The latest effort: a nighttime light show titled The Color of Discovery.

From the press invite:

With the launch of The Color of Discovery, the Hotel Indigo brand is set to expose consumers to a one-of-a-kind, community experience like never before. The Color of Discovery leads travelers to explore and discover the local neighborhoods of each Hotel Indigo property through a series of mnemonic reveals. The brand’s message is to deliver a unique boutique experience at each location and the color Indigo is the emblematic of each unfolding adventure.

To launch this campaign, Hotel Indigo Lower East Side New York is hosting an event exposing the culture of the Lower East Side (complete with graffiti art, performances and neighborhood elements) while partnering with Dawn of Man and Lee Quiñones to bring the new campaign to life in a truly imaginative display of 3D projection art that incorporates the signature Indigo mnemonic, thus revealing each aspect of the local scene.

[Photo by James and Karla Murray]

At one point, it looked like the projection of an old tenement projected on the new building that the Hotel Indigo replaced. BoweryBoogie noted this morning that this Color of Discovery is helping the hotel further solidify "its sense of self, you know, just in case you didn’t realize the towering 23-story building was there."

Then there is the hotel's 15th-floor bar called Mr. Purple.

According to initial reports, the bar, featuring an outdoor pool, was named after Adam Purple, the well-known Lower East Side environmentalist and activist, who died on Sept. 14 at age 84. (The Gerber Group, who operates the bar space, later seemed to backtrack on this.)

On Nov. 24, a rep for the Gerber Group sent us the following statement in regard to Mr. Purple to show that they are committed to supporting the local community:

The name of the bar and restaurant was established when the project was first conceptualized in 2014. It was indeed inspired by Lower East Side resident David Wilkie, who became known as "Mr. Purple." A gardener and activist, he was an iconic figure who dedicated his life to beautifying and improving the neighborhood. A mural was painted in his honor and can be seen on display in the lobby area of the hotel.

Also, in honoring Wilkie's dedication to the neighborhood, the restaurant is committed to supporting the Lower East Side community through several initiatives including partnerships with the Bowery Mission and local businesses such as Russ & Daughters, il laboratorio del gelato and Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery who are all featured on the restaurant's menu. Additionally, through the Lower East Side Employment Network (LESEN), 30 percent of jobs at the hotel have been allocated to local residents.

After posting this statement, we heard from Russ & Daughters, who wanted to set the record straight:

Russ & Daughters doesn’t have a partnership with Mr. Purple or Hotel Indigo. That restaurant simply purchased smoked salmon at our shop one time. We never authorized them to use our name on their menus or in their promotional materials.

We then contacted the Bowery Mission to see if they do have a relationship with the hotel. In an email, James Winans, chief development officer for the Bowery Mission, told us the following:

The Gerber Group reached out to The Bowery Mission a number of weeks ago. They seem genuinely interested in getting to know The Bowery Mission and learning how they can help us serve our homeless and poor neighbors. The Gerber Group has made an initial financial contribution and spent a morning volunteering at the Mission.

Part of this relationship also included Mr. Purple donating a $1 to the Mission from every drink sold on Thanksgiving eve and Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, in a report yesterday, BoweryBoogie noted further tension between the bar and some local community members, particularly those who were friends with Adam Purple.

Multiple sources tell us that there was actually a meeting earlier in the year between Adam Purple and the Gerber Group. While the hotel was still under wraps. Purple apparently never gave them permission to use his name or his likeness and did not sign any documents to that effect.

And!

We hear whispers that a large contingent wants to approach the hotel with positive solutions ... If the hotel is open to hearing these ideas and willing to speak with a representative from the community, they are saying, then there might be a way to honor Purple’s legacy, and at least might make a clueless concept a bit less offensive.

The short list of ideas includes asking the hotel to create a proper memorial in the bar with a display of photos and info about Adam, taking the “Mr. Purple Burger” off of the menu [Purple was a devout vegetarian] or replacing it with a garden burger, and educating the staff on the real story of Adam Purple.

For the time being, New Year's Eve reservations are now being accepted at Mr. Purple...

🍾💜🍾💜🍾 Celebrate #NYE at Hotel Indigo LES @mrpurplenyc!GA + table packages are on sale now #nye #2016 #nye2016 pic.twitter.com/v9dFFKYkof

— Hotel Indigo L.E.S. (@HotelindigoLES) December 8, 2015

If you're interested, the VIP Table Package No. 3 is $3,000 ...



Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] The upscale hotel bar with a pool named for the late environmentalist Adam Purple

[Updated] The Gerber Group responds to criticism over Mr. Purple

[Updated] The Gerber Group responds to criticism over Mr. Purple

Last Tuesday, we noted that the newly opened Hotel Indigo on Ludlow Street included a 15th-floor bar called Mr. Purple.

According to an article in WWD, the bar, featuring an outdoor pool and cocktails in the $14-$15 range, was inspired by Adam Purple, the well-known Lower East Side environmentalist and activist, who died on Sept. 14 at age 84.

News that the upscale bar named itself for Purple, who, in the mid-1980s, created a five-lot, 15,000-square-foot garden amid the ruins of the Lower East Side and spoke out against unchecked development, prompted criticism from some readers/residents here and here and here.

The Gerber Group, who operates the bar space, sent us the following statement this morning in regard to Mr. Purple to show that they are committed to supporting the local community:

The name of the bar and restaurant was established when the project was first conceptualized in 2014. It was indeed inspired by Lower East Side resident David Wilkie, who became known as "Mr. Purple." A gardener and activist, he was an iconic figure who dedicated his life to beautifying and improving the neighborhood. A mural was painted in his honor and can be seen on display in the lobby area of the hotel.

Also, in honoring Wilkie's dedication to the neighborhood, the restaurant is committed to supporting the Lower East Side community through several initiatives including partnerships with the Bowery Mission and local businesses such as Russ & Daughters, il laboratorio del gelato and Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery who are all featured on the restaurant's menu. Additionally, through the Lower East Side Employment Network (LESEN), 30 percent of jobs at the hotel have been allocated to local residents.

The lobby mural in question is the work of prominent graffiti artist Lee Quiñones, who grew up on the Lower East Side in the 1960s and 1970s.

Updated 11/25

A representative from Russ & Daughters reached out to us with a statement:

Russ & Daughters doesn’t have a partnership with Mr. Purple or Hotel Indigo. That restaurant simply purchased smoked salmon at our shop one time. We never authorized them to use our name on their menus or in their promotional materials.