ZP Auto Repair moves out of NoHo; condo on the way in?

We've been keeping an eye on ZP Auto Repair on the southwest corner of Lafayette and Great Jones , which had been on the market for several years ...

Last Friday, Goggla noticed that the guys were sweeping out the shop with a bit of finality... and today, the shop sits empty...

They'll be working from Brooklyn now.

Meanwhile, we don't know for sure what's coming here. The listing is no longer active at the Massey Knakal site, which stated "the property has Landmark’s Approval for a 6-story steel and glass building for residential, commercial or hotel-use." The property was listed at $4.4 million.

And this was the last rendering we saw:

Taking a look at the latest blight on the downtown skyline

I've been so distracted by Harrison Ford's gargantuan cranium of late that I haven't even noticed the 13-story Great Jones Hotel creeping up the downtown skyline...




Ah, here it is upclose at 25 Great Jones Street at Lafayette. One day it will be home to all sorts of fancy eateries and bars and stuff.



Born to Fit? Heh! Tell that to the understandably pe-od neighbors... (Curbed has a full report on the public meeting on Jan. 19.)



And last year around this time, I snapped photos at 25 Great Jones announcing the hotel would be completed in February 2010...




Meanwhile, next to the Hotel, plans were announced last December for that narrow lot that once housed the Jones Diner... it's a (surprise!) glassy, six-floor retail/residential building...If you've been following this story, then you know how the Hotel is essentially eliminating greatly reducing the natural light into Chuck Close's studio here on Bond Street...



(In fact, I saw Close and his assistant enter the building the other day... I was going to ask him about the latest developments, but decided against it...)



So you'd better enjoy the graffiti in this lot while you can...

New skyline for Lafayette Street?

The Meineke Car Care Center on the southwest corner of Lafayette and Great Jones has been on the market for several years... I took the photo below for a post back in February.



As I noted in February... According to the Massey Knakal Web site: The property has Landmark’s Approval for a 6-story steel and glass building for residential, commercial or hotel-use. The property is listed at $4.4 million. It could look something like this:



Anyway, the "for sale" signs have been removed...



Perhaps a buyer has been found? The property is still listed at Massey Knakal.

Meanwhile, next door...Massey Knakal is arranging for the sale 8 Bond Street and 358-364 Lafayette. According to the listing:

This exciting and rare site can be delivered vacant which allows for immediate development to meet the ever increasing hotel/commercial office demand in New York City. Alternatively, a developer could obtain a special permit for residential use from the city, a precedent that has been set by a variety of projects in the immediate area. Currently, the site is generating approximately $333,000 annually. All of the current leases are cancellable on either 30 or 90-day notice.

And what might this space look like...?



No price listed...the owner is requesting proposals because..."This property represents a truly rare opportunity to capitalize on the strong demand for a premier residential, commercial, or hotel development site on one of the most sought after streets not only in NoHo, but in all of Manhattan."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Another corner still primed to fall on NoHo

What's next for the "stocky, brooding" 37 Great Jones?

While I'm in the neighborhood... Dunno how long 37 Great Jones has been on the market...



As the Times noted in March 2008: "An unusual addition to the street was the stocky, brooding building at 37 Great Jones, designed in 1917 by Lewis Patton and used as a warehouse in the 1930s by the Philco Radio and Television Corporation."

Here's how it looked in 1936 (via):



The building is on the block for $8.8 million. As the listing (PDF) notes, "This property represents a unique opportunity for an investor or end user (such as a single family or restaurant), in an area teaming with new development. This building abuts Ian Schrager's 40 Bond, and numerous other new projects."

Single family?

Remembering the Jones Diner

I couldn't let my previous post on the corner of Lafayette and Great Jones pass without an appreciation of the former occupant of the southeast corner (the one with the new hotel) -- the Jones Diner. We lost this one in September 2002.

Here's a passage from a piece that Tom Robbins did for the Voice back in January 2002:

Jones Diner is in an area zoned for manufacturing because, when it was built, the big cast-iron and federal-style brick buildings along Lafayette, Great Jones, and neighboring Bond and East 4th streets were filled with woodworking and machine shops and small garment plants. At breakfast and lunch, workers swarmed through the diner's narrow door, plunking themselves on the green padded stools and into the brown booths. Most of those businesses are long since gone; however, their lofts are now occupied by well-heeled residents and swank high-tech offices.

But Jones Diner has endured. Its $3 breakfast specials (juice included) and the never changing plastic-lettered menus above the big gleaming coffee tureens, offering meat loaf sandwiches for $3.25 and pot roast for $4.50, still lure passing delivery workers as well as employees of the neighborhood's last industrial outposts, the lumber yard down the block and the muffler shop across the street. There is also a loyal cadre of local residents who, in a swath of urban landscape that boasts three Starbucks, an Au Bon Pain, a Wendy's, a McDonald's, and an ever expanding universe of mid- to high-end restaurants, still find the Jones the most comfortable dining place within walking distance for simple meals.

For further reading:
The Fate of a Fabled Greasy Spoon Raises Questions About Landmarking (New York Times)

Former site of the Great Jones Diner (Flaming Pablum)

Jones Diner - Lafayette St. (NYC.com)

[Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

Another corner still primed to fall in NoHo

The Meineke Car Care Center on the southwest corner of Lafayette and Great Jones is still for sale. Haven't been by this corner for some time...I recall talk of either a condo, and later, a hotel, for this space back in the summer of 2007...I thought it was a done deal.




According to the Massey Knakal Web site:

The property has Landmark’s Approval for a 6-story steel and glass building for residential, commercial or hotel-use. The development opportunity at 372 Lafayette Street has tremendous potential. The location alone sets the site apart as there is tremendous demand for this type of development project. This property represents a truly exceptional opportunity to capitalize on the strong demand for a premier residential, commercial, or mixed-use development site within the trendiest retail corridor in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan.

The property is listed at $4.4 million. It could look something like this:



Meanwhile, here's what it looks like now...enjoy it while you can...




Meanwhile, across the street, work continues on the Great Jones Hotel. Which the sign says will be completed in February 2010.

Meanwhile, farther east on Great Jones...

Given the changes this area has seen of late, I wonder how much longer great little corner lots such as this one on Great Jones and the Bowery will be around...(I tend to worry about such things.)





And signs like this always give me pause...makes it seem as if Great Jones Cafe is up for grabs...