On Avenue B, a there-goes-the-neighborhood building sells for $43 million

Photo by Stacie Joy 

The Villager, the 6-story apartment building that anchors the NW corner of Avenue B and Second Street, has a new owner. 

According to TradedNY, Skyline Developers sold the 61-unit complex at 194 E. Second St. to Benchmark Real Estate Group for $43 million. 

The building's completion in 1997 was seen by some as an (another) end-of-an-era/there-goes-the-neighborhood moment. (In reporting on the sale this week, Crain's called this a "Neighborhood-defining East Village rental.") 

Previously, this corner was home to a gas station... shooting gallery ... and then, for a 10-year run, The Gas Station, aka Art Gallery Space 2B (or Space 2B Art Yard), a freewheeling arts and events space.

Per the Times:

For 10 years, the Gas Station, with its towering sculpture built from discards ranging from a 1970 Plymouth Valiant to department store mannequins to television sets, has been a symbol of the Lower East Side's Bohemian ways and artistic resolve.

Alex at Flaming Pablum has written about the Gas Station and this part of its history:

The Gas Station is probably most notorious for being the site of the final, calamitous performance by G.G. Allin & the Murder Junkies. After the show in question ended in a riot (not an atypical situation for the Geeg), Allin tromped off into the East Village afternoon with some new friends, only to overdose on smack later that evening, undermining his oft-stated intention to kill himself onstage.

The Gas Station was cleared out in 1996.

An aerial view of 2B by LeoLondon from 1993.

There goes the neighborhood, again (again) (again)

Over on East 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A... EVG reader Sharon Lawless spotted the following vanity plate... in the (former?) shadows of the almost-demolished Mary Help of Christians and the latest luxurious effort from Karl Fischer. She asks, is this the Ghost of Christmas Future?



Oh, yeah! Beverly Hills 10009.

Noted

Via an interview from the Daily News real-estate section the other day with BOND senior vice president Mary Lou Currier:

What’s your next hottest nabe in NYC?
The East Village/Bowery. It’s really heating up and getting fancier. I consider the East Village the last "authentic" neighborhood in NYC.

The Cooper Square Hotel gets the OK to be Balazsed

As we noted, hotelier Andre Balazs is taking over the troubled Cooper Square Hotel. And last night, Balazs was at the CB3/SLA meeting to seek a transfer of the Coop's liquor license to his Standard chain.

A shame we missed it. Heard it was some good theater. Per Jetty-Jane Connor's report at Eater, one resident in favor of the transfer said, "We have the option to choose between badly managed nightlife or well managed nightlife, and I firmly believe having an upscale, well-managed establishment will be an improvement to this neighborhood."

The CB3/SLA committee didn't seem to mind that any this may very well turn into the Meatpacking District East. (Or maybe it already has.) The transfer received the committee's unanimous approval.

Here's DNAinfo's recap from the meeting.

[Balazs image via]

It's another Saturday night and...

There goes the neighborhood for real: 2 Cooper Square will open with the highest rents ever in the East Village

Yowza. The Wall Street Journal checks in with a story about 2 Cooper Square ...



To the story:

Atlantic Development Group, which owns or manages 48 rental buildings in the city, plans to open next month 2 Cooper, at East Fourth Street near the Bowery. The 15-story, amenity-rich building is charging the highest rents ever in this rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, brokers say. Three-bedroom apartments run as high as $20,000 per month.

Atlantic's initial plans for 2 Cooper were much more modest. In 2004, the developer designed a building aimed at attracting New York University and Cooper Union students.

But Atlantic switched gears when it saw that the Bowery neighborhood was going upscale quickly. Two high-end hotels were built on the street, and a contemporary art museum opened its doors south of Houston. In recent months, Keith McNally and Daniel Boulud have launched restaurants on the Bowery.

Amenities added by 2 Cooper include a 15-seat private screening room and a 75-square foot walk-in refrigerator on the ground floor to hold tenants' food and flower deliveries.

"The neighborhood has become a destination but what's stopped people from moving there is a dearth of luxury properties," says Yuri Lobachevsky, a residential broker with Citi Habitats.

The building has signed leases for 21 of its 144 units, according to Atlantic. The majority have gone to people who already live downtown and were looking for an upgrade, says Richard Cantor, a principal at broker Cantor Pecorella.

Previously on EV Grieve:
2 Cooper Square looking for some "masculine, attractive, intelligent" Clive Owens types with kids — but, lordy, not kids who actually live with them!

Ugh

Guss' Pickles moving to Brooklyn (The Lo-Down)

Coming soon to 282 Bowery . . .

Grub Street reports: Keith McNally has officially signed the lease on 282 Bowery.