The end of Evolution (or whatever the place was called)

Went by the bar on the corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street -- the one that had so many names I'm not even really sure what it's called -- for the flamethrowing contest* last night... and it was...



...closed. 4-ever. Apparently they did spend all their money on new awnings.



I will be hosting a screening of "Cocktail" later today* outside the bar with Hunter-Gatherer and Jeremiah Moss.

* not true

Max Fish closes tonight

Contrary to previous published reports, Max Fish closes after tonight on Ludlow Street.

There's a feature on the bar closing in The Wall Street Journal today... (Subscription required)

Said owner Ulli Rimkus:

"I wish it could be around forever," she said, dumping the walkway trash into a garbage can. "I wish I could pass it on to a daughter, have it around for 80 years. But if you don't own the building, what can you do?"

And!

"In 1989, our neighbors were all artists and musicians—it was perfect," Ms. Rimkus said, now sitting at the curvy bar, the Velvet Underground blasting over the stereo. "It changed when we started to see all our neighbors disappearing."

The bar, which opened in 1989, will have a new location in Williamsburg this fall.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

EVG Etc.: East River Park stormproofing reactions; 14th Street trapeze hoop dreams

[A note at Ben Shaoul's new condoplex next to Katz's]

As we've been reporting, City Council held an oversight hearing on the secretly revised East River Park stormproofing plan on Wednesday afternoon. Gothamist and Curbed had reporters at the well-attended hearing. Find their recaps at these links:

• LES & East Village Residents Feel 'Duped' By City's Surprise Plan To Bury East River Park (Gothamist)

• Revamped East Side flood protection plan debated at packed City Council hearing (Curbed)

A visit to the East 14th Street home of aerialist Phoenix Feeley, who is subletting her place that is outfitted with a trapeze hoop. However: "The hoop will stay in a locked closet, for use by any tenants with the proper training and insurance." (The New Yorker)

The MTA postpones its fare-hike vote — until next month (amNY)

Inside the fight over the Elizabeth Street Garden (Curbed)

What's happening in the ongoing e-bike/e-scooter debate among city bigs (Daily News)

A new development with "micro units" coming to Essex Street (City Realty)

Yep: New York’s nightlife industry outpaces rest of local economy (Curbed)

Staffers at the New Museum on the Bowery vote to unionize (Hyperallergic)

East Village-based singer-songwriter Riley Pinkerton plays the Mercury Lounge Feb. 6 (Official site)

An appreciation of the late Saul Leiter, artist, photographer and longtime East Village resident (Off the Grid)

Give 'em the hook originated on stage at this Bowery theater in the 1890s (Ephemeral New York)

"Burning," the critically acclaimed South Korean thriller from Lee Chang-dong, got snubbed in the best foreign-language film category in the Oscar race. Anyway, it's still enjoying a run at the Quad on 13th Street (Official site)

A rando ICYMI: That video of Beto O'Rourke on rhythm guitar in a onesie and sheep mask playing (with a band) "Blitzkrieg Bop" (Mother Jones)

... and if you happen to have a subscription to The Economist, then you can read a feature on Alex Harsley, the photographer who runs the great 4th Street Photo Gallery on Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery. The piece is titled "Alex Harsley is an unsung doyen of New York photography."

The city has been Mr Harsley’s home since 1948, when, aged ten, he moved there from South Carolina. He took his first photograph ten years later, and became the first black photographer to work for the city’s district attorney’s office. His scintillating pictures freeze moments in New York’s evolution from the 1950s to the present.

You can also head into the EVG archives for this two-part interview with Alex from January 2014.


[Photo for EVG by James Maher]

Documenting 166 Avenue A through the years

I always enjoy receiving correspondence from Anton van Dalen, the artist who has lived on Avenue A between 10th Street and 11th Street for decades. Here's the latest dispatch:

Sending you photos of our home at 166 Avenue A, of its over the years evolving facade appearance. The photos cover a span of now almost 50 years of my observing and documenting our neighborhood.

Came to this address in 1971. Before we lived at 123 Rivington St. near the corner of Essex Street.

Initially I just watched and listened to the street life, its sidewalk theater with joyous salsa music. It was not the New World that I had imagined as child growing up in Holland — no streets here paved with gold. Rather streets paved by the colors of many cultures. 

On first arrival our new home looked abandoned, hardened by history, burned out house next door. And by contrast, a storefront church on the other side, often crowded with multigenerational Puerto Rican families. 

Today our Puerto Rican community is marginal, as neighborhood's demographics radically changed. As my below succession of photos illustrate, the creeping ongoing gentrification of our neighborhood.

I consider myself a documentarian of the East Village, yet I am a participant and spectator to its evolution. Began documenting my street surroundings in 1975, urged on by wanting to note and remember these lives. Came to realize I had to embrace wholeheartedly, with pencil in hand, my streets with its raw emotions. 

Also the everywhere discarded bloody heroin needles on sidewalks stunned and urged on my thinking. The drug dealers, the junkies, the police, the firefighters, were then the unquestioned royalty of our neighborhood. 

Then came hopeful efforts by gardeners in garbage-strewn abandoned lots, squatters, community organizers. They were able to redirect our devastated neighborhood toward again being a community for many. 

So my documenting became more and more informed by the stories of my neighbors' acts of activism. And a commitment on my part to be true to those lives, of their raw heartfelt emotions, birthed on the street. 

Their truth telling kept my work honest, brought authenticity to my documentation, so critically important. That my work needed to join the raw birth, speak for, this sad beauty born on our streets, and not to forget.

Postscript:

One of Anton's drawings, titled "Street Woman on Car" (1977) and posted at the top, has been acquired by the Whitney. That drawing is included in a show there now titled "Around Day's End: Downtown New York, 1970-1986." This exhibit closes on Nov. 1.

Anton is pictured below with the exhibit's curators, Laura Phipps (left) and Christie Mitchell (photo by Grace Keir).

And details on the drawing: "Street Woman on Car" (1977). Graphite pencil on paper, sheet: 22 3/4 × 29in. (57.8 × 73.7 cm). Purchased with funds from the Drawing Committee 2016/7. © Anton van Dalen

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Anton van Dalen, drawing in isolation

[Updated] On today's grill menu: First deputy mayor Tony Shorris

First deputy mayor Tony Shorris is testifying today at a City Council hearing about the controversial sale of Rivington House on the Lower East Side to condo developers.

As Politico New York noted, this "will mark the highest-profile public airing of the controversy surrounding the sale of Rivington House"

Back in July, Shorris answered questions during an often contentious 2.5-hour interview with an investigator working on behalf of City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Through a Freedom of Information Law request, Politico obtained the 114-page transcript of that session.

Here's an excerpt from Politico's coverage:

It also seems clear, although Shorris never says so directly, that he did not have a particularly robust or effective mode of communicating with Stacey Cumberbatch, who was commissioner of DCAS until January of this year.

Cumberbatch informed Shorris through a routine memo about the potential sale of Rivington House, which had been a city-owned building before being sold to a nonprofit running an AIDS residence in the 1990s.

Shorris explained that he did not read the memo and that some time during the latter portion of his first year on the job, he stopped reading these memos in their entirety because they were too time-consuming.

Instead, he expected commissioners to use their judgment and inform him in person or over the phone of priorities and problems. But that evolution in communication strategy was never made clear to Cumberbatch, Shorris acknowledged during questioning.

And here's how the Post covered the July 27 Shorris meeting with investigators:

First Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris suffered numerous memory lapses about the Rivington Street nursing-home fiasco, telling investigators more than two dozen times that he couldn’t recall incidents, ­emails or details, records show.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s right-hand man claimed he couldn’t remember a meeting with Stacey Cumberbatch, a city commissioner, or the content of any conversations they had about Rivington in 2014.

When investigators tried to press Shorris over the memory lapse, his lawyer, G. Michael Bellinger, repeatedly intervened, the Post notes.

In February 2015, the Allure Group paid $28 million for the property, promising that 45 Rivington — the former Rivington Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation — would remain a health facility. In November, a city agency lifted the the deed in exchange for the Allure Group's $16 million payment to the city.

Earlier this year, Allure then reportedly sold the property for $116 million to the the Slate Property Group, a condo developer who plans to create 100 luxury residences in the building that overlooks Sara S. Roosevelt Park.

Updated 9/30

Read more about what transpired during the six-hour hearing at DNAinfo... Daily News ... The New York Times...Politico... the Post...Village Voice ...

Meanwhile! As The Lo-Down reported, the de Blasio administration plans to create affordable senior housing on the Lower East Side to make up for the loss of Rivington House. The facility will be on Pike Street.

Former David Barton space on Astor Place will become an 'elite' New York Sports Club

Back in December, the four David Barton Gym locations in Manhattan, including on Astor Place, shut down without any warning to its members or staff.

That prime Astor Place space won't be staying vacant for too much longer. Yesterday, Town Sports International, the owners of the New York Sports Clubs brand, announced that they had bought the 10,000-square-foot space ... which will become one of New York Sports Clubs' collection of Elite clubs.

Here's more from an announcement that arrived in the EVG inbox:

New York Sports Clubs will pay homage to the rich neighborhood culture originally created by David Barton at 4 Astor Place by retaining many of the club's original finishes and signature touches while bringing in a new fresh new wave of equipment, facilities, amenities and class offerings.

The new location at 4 Astor Place will feature several new programs and will also boast Rogue rigs, Woodway treadmills, lifting platforms and expanded training zones.

New York Sports Clubs Elite membership gyms are the evolution of the Sports Clubs brand. This new tier of membership will offer customers a higher level of service, amenities, programming and partnerships as well as providing access to the nearly 150 clubs within the TSI network.

For more information about the Astor Place location, you can visit the official gym website here.

Last month, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Club Ventures Investments LLC d/b/a David Barton Gyms

David Barton arrived on Astor Place in 2009.

More about Max Fish maybe moving to Brooklyn

At The New York Times today, Cara Buckley has more on the probable move of Max Fish to Brooklyn.

Owner Ulli Rimkus gave her this via text message: "We are trying to move to Williamsburg. Nothing certain, except that we have to move." She declined to answer more questions. And this: She "later shooed a reporter out of her bar."

And what do longtime neighbors at Katz's and Russ & Daughters think?

They "met the news with resignation bordering on nonchalance. The rapid gentrification of the neighborhood made the bar's departure feel inevitable, they said.

"Everything else is gone," said David Manheim, 38, a waiter at Katz's. "Why shouldn’t Max Fish be gone too?"

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

[Updated] "Artists, filmmakers, movie theaters — we're getting pushed out of Manhattan"

That's Ray Privett, programmer at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater. In a New York Sun feature today, Privett discusses his latest project: the Queensbridge Theater. According to the article, "As envisioned, Queensbridge will occupy an entire building in Long Island City housing a restaurant, a dance floor, and a space for concerts and performances. Mr. Privett said the venue, which is scheduled to open in the fall, will ideally remain open for 20 or 21 hours a day and cater to both Manhattanites and local residents."

More from the article:

It is yet unknown whether Mr. Privett's decision to remain involved in the local film scene will help to assuage mounting fears that Manhattan is no longer a place where independent artists can thrive. Queensbridge, for starters, has left the borough entirely.

"This is all definitely part of the general trend," Mr. Privett said. "With Queensbridge, I'm working with a lot of people from the Lower East Side who can no longer continue having things on the Lower East Side. People in the film world are going to Texas and Germany. Artists, filmmakers, movie theaters — we're getting pushed out of Manhattan, and my evolution is yet more proof of that."

[Updated] Ray Privett left a comment to this post...He had posted a few clarifications to the Sun article:

The Pioneer is still open. My departure from the Pioneer did not close the Pioneer, nor did the two things coincide. Indeed, my successors booked the three films mentioned in the first paragraph of Mr. Snyder’s article. Clearly, the Pioneer can do interesting things without me. Hopefully they continue to. Good luck to them.

Moreover, the Lower East Side’s gentrification did not cause me to leave the Pioneer. I have never claimed it did.

I left the Pioneer because professional opportunities emerged at the Queensbridge Theater - which is not a movie theater but a performing arts club, and which is now where the bulk of my efforts have shifted. Meanwhile, in film related endeavors, I felt I could be more effective as my own boss.

However, while gentrification did not cause my shift to Queens, that shift does coincide with the general trend of Lower East Side arts people relocating to the outer boroughs. For example, several of my colleagues in Queensbridge have tilted much of their work to the outer boroughs.

Nonetheless, they still sometimes put on shows in the Lower East Side and elsewhere in Manhattan. Many will continue to do so; from time to time, I know I will, too.

The new Max Fish reopens tomorrow

Per the Max Fish Facebook page:

Not really much else to say besides...The Fish is back in the L.E.S. Thanks for all the love since we've been closed, see you this weekend!

Max Fish closed last July after 24 years at 178 Ludlow St.

Owner Ulli Rimkus told DNAinfo that "people will see a bunch of the same things they saw on Ludlow Street. They just have to come and look for it."

The bar's former pool table will also return, though not until after a back wall is knocked down. (There will be pinball machines too.)

While the new version of the bar will retain familiar elements, Rimkus said she also plans to make space to show work by new artists.

"I don't want it to be a Max Fish museum," she told DNAinfo, who also has photos of the new interior.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

First sign that Max Fish is returning to the Lower East Side

A few more details (hard-boiled eggs!) about Max Fish, which hopes to return to the LES

Report: Max Fish clears first hurdle in return to the Lower East Side

Suitor in line for Lucky Cheng's space

The November agenda is out for the CB3/SLA committee meeting... we'll highlight the docket in full a little later... (You can find it here for now.)

A few quick notes. The folks from the incoming Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken on East First Street are down for a beer-wine license.

Also, there's an unnamed suitor for the Lucky Cheng's space. (The cabaret is now open on Times Square.)

I asked Lucky Cheng's owner Hayne Suthon for an update on the space this morning, and she wasn't quite ready to divulge the To Be Determined. "Not sure. The attorneys are negotiating still — one main tenant with a back up," she said via email.

In an interview with Suthon on Oct. 12, Blackbook's Steve Lewis had this to sale about the evolution of Lucky Cheng's and what is next:

All was good until the neighborhood changed. The East Village/LES's conversion from hipster heaven to dormitories for slaves and students left them without their base. Bachelorette and birthday shindigs filled the Lucky Cheng’s room,and Hayne eyed the new Times Square. A year or two ago, I told everyone in town that her space was available and the best game in town. Now, operators are clamoring for it and deals are done... almost. Someone will make it nice for those who are now around. Money will be spent to pay for the rent, the renovation, and other things. The neighborhood can now support that. Whatever fabulous that comes in will set a bar... a tone for the area.

Find the history of every neighborhood building with East Village Building Blocks

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has created a new tool to make sure that you never leave the internet to explore the history of every building in the neighborhood.

Here's more about East Village Building Blocks, via a GVSHP email yesterday:

This online resource, which took 10 years to complete, used primary source research on every building in the East Village to determine (when possible) date of construction, original architect, original use, alterations over time, and any significant figures, events, businesses, or institutions connected to the existing building or prior buildings on the site.

Buildings can be searched by address, location, architect, building type or style, or significant figures, cultural groups, or types of activities associated with it. Present day and historic photos are also provided for each building, along with historic documents establishing dates of construction, owners, architects, uses, and alterations. Buildings include scores of houses of worship, theaters, schools, libraries, the country’s first public housing development, and one of the largest collections of intact tenements from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries.

Pack a bag and head into East Village Building Blocks at this link.

The arrival of the new tool coincides with the publication of "A History of the East Village and Its Architecture" by Francis Morrone.

Per GVSHP:

This report by the noted architectural historian documents the East Village’s history from Dutch settlement in the 17th century, to its development in the 19th century as a prosperous merchant burg and then immigrant gateway, to its evolution in the 20th century as an epicenter of abandonment and blight to a mecca for cultural innovation and rebirth, and its struggle in the 21st century to maintain its identity in the face of renewed popularity and success.

Read the report at this link. And you can find more about GVSHP's ongoing preservation efforts here.

At Fly Dove NYC

In August, longtime East Village resident Rachel Breitman opened Fly Dove NYC, a women's boutique in a basement space at 197 E. Seventh St. between Avenue B and Avenue C.



We asked Breitman, who moved to the neighborhood with her mother as a child in 1979, a few questions about her start. Stacie Joy stopped by for some photos.

How did the shop come about?

It was somewhat of an evolution of rethinking my life-long interest in fashion and exploring the idea of having my own business. I figured this would be the best time in my life to take the risk, although I still have my 9-5 while I get this off the ground.

I started two years ago with the idea to design some outerwear, then I realized that it was too expensive and competitive of a business. Along the way, I would do weekend markets in Nolita, Long Island City and the West Village. By doing that, I discovered that I enjoyed the retail aspect of it all and started to envision what my boutique would look like.

I always loved editing, styling, and the idea of being a buyer for a store always intrigued me. However, I did want to do something of my very own — create my own vision. It was a one-two year long process but eventually I started looking at spaces in Alphabet City last fall.



Was this something that you had always thought about doing?

I did not always think of doing something like this. In fact, I always saw myself having a nonprofit centered around the arts, education and economic/community development, etc. Working in the Loisaida community was my background before getting into finance.

East Seventh Street between Avenue B and Avenue C is one of my favorite blocks in the neighborhood. Was there something in particular about this block that made you want to open your business here?

It is a great block. A lot of trees and a nice mix of buildings — good foot traffic too.

I definitely wanted to be in Alphabet City and Seventh Street just felt right. Of course the affordability of the rent really was a factor too. When I started looking, I really was surprised how many commercial vacancies there were and how many businesses were closing.

However, landlords want to charge crazy rents that only a bar would be able to afford to pay and/or someone with a trust fund. [Laughs] But, they don't care — they will stay empty.

Once I get my business off the ground I definitely want to explore what can be done in terms of affordability of commercial space for small business startups or existing in this area. Perhaps get together with some of the other neighboring businesses.

It was also important to be in the vicinity east of Avenue A and between 14th Street and East Houston because there wasn't really any other option to find on-trend women's clothing within my price point. Pricing things affordably is very important to me.

What has been the response so far to your shop?

The response has been amazing! I get new faces coming in every day checking out the boutique. The place is still being discovered, especially since I am a basement location and nothing has been here for more than 20 years. So I plan to continue to market as much as possible, host events and get the word out!

EVG Etc. Remembering Chef Colin Alevras; assessing the mayor's street sweeps

• RIP Colin Alevras, who ran the the Tasting Room with his wife Renee on East First Street from 1999-2006 before moving to Elizabeth Street. He died of glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. (The New York Times) 

• Assessing Mayor Adams' street sweeps six months later: "Property destroyed, people separated from services, no reduction in street homelessness" (1010 WINS) 

• Dysfunction in the Adams administration fuels housing crisis (The Post) ... And the mayor parties until late at Little Sister at the Moxy East Village (Page Six)

• State court keeps possibility of permanent outdoor dining program alive (Gothamist) 

• New program will convert unused newsstands to rest stops for delivery workers (The City) 

• Primary Wave Music has acquired a major stake in Joey Ramone's music-publishing assets for around $10 million (Variety) 

• Interesting behavior from Christo and Amelia in Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggon Photography) 

• Fake heiress Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey) is living in the East Village upon her release from prison yesterday (The New York Times... the Post) 

• The story of Angel Ortiz, Keith Haring's overlooked collaborator (i-D) 

• Some history of the recently opened Nine Orchard hotel on the LES ... aka, the old Jarmulowsky Bank building (The Forward) 

• Double Chicken Please on Allen Street named one of the world's best bars (6sgft) 

• The evolution of the egg cream (Eater) 

• Iggy Pop Covers Leonard Cohen's "You Want It Darker" (Pitchfork) 

• THIS WEEKEND: A few screenings left of Kathryn Bigelow & Monty Montgomery's "The Loveless" and Abel Ferrara's "The Addiction" (Anthology Film Archives)

A few more details (hard-boiled eggs!) about Max Fish, which hopes to return to the LES

As you probably know, the folks at Max Fish are hoping to have a revival in the Lower East Side… the bar, which had a nearly 25-year-run at 178 Ludlow St., is looking to move into the Gallery Bar at 120 Orchard St.

Paperwork filed ahead of this month's CB3/SLA committee meeting next Monday offers up some details about Max Fish 2014.

• Proposed hours are 4 p.m. to 4 a.m.
• The paperwork lists nine tables with 69 seats ("including couches") … plus "56 other couch seats."
• They are planning on using two levels (ground floor and cellar)
• They "may host scheduled performances, possibly 1 performance per week, and it may be advertised but the premises will not be turned over to promoters."

You can check out the very detailed CB3 questionnaire (which includes the floor plans) here (PDF!)

There's also a mention of a few basic food items for sale…



Behold the Max Fish hard-boiled eggs!

Also, check out BoweryBoogie, who had some more info yesterday about the new Max Fish.

Max Fish closed last July 29 after 24 years on the LES. Higher rents caused them to move out to Williamsburg, but plans there for a bar haven't materialized.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The art evolution of Ulli Rimkus and Max Fish

From Tin Pan Alley to Max Fish

[Updated] Max Fish is apparently moving to Brooklyn; eyeing August close date

Report: retail portion of Ben Shaoul's luxury condoplex on Houston and Orchard sells for a whopping $88 million

Developer Ben Shaoul and company have reportedly sold the retail space of its gold-dusted condoplex at 196 Orchard St. — whoa, brace! — for $88.75 million.

That's three retail tenants in total — the Marshalls, the coming-soon CVS and the Equinox on the upper two floors here along Houston between Ludlow and Orchard.

The Real Deal has the story:

The developers behind 196 Orchard Street, Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Management and Michael Miller’s Real Estate Equities Corp., sold the retail portion of the building to the AR Global affiliate New York City REIT, sources told The Real Deal. The sale price is $88.75 million, which makes it the most expensive deal for a retail condo in more than two years.

The price works out to more than $1,475 per square foot.

Back to TRD:

The deal is the most expensive sale of a retail condo since Savanna sold the retail portion of 10 Madison Square west for $97.5 million in the spring of 2017 to TH Real Estate (now Nuveen Real Estate).

This property here previously housed a single row of storefronts, including Ray's Pizza, Bereket and Lobster Joint. As Shaoul told the Times back in 2017, the small businesses that closed were "part of evolution ... You call it gentrification, I call it 'cleaning it up.'"

Shaoul and REEC bought the air rights from Katz's next door to help make this condoplex a reality.

Succession to the throne on 2nd Avenue

In a battle for the crown, Vic has apparently lost out... an EVG reader shared this photo from Second Avenue and Fourth Street, where the queer-friendly English-style pub Queen Vic is now simply going as Queen.

Queen, from the owners of Boiler Room next door, has not been open since the PAUSE went into effect last March.

Queen Vic opened in September 2010, putting an end to the carousel of bars here, including 2x4, Ambiance and Evolution.

[Updated] What would you rather see at 51 Astor Place?

Yesterday, we posted updated photos (thanks to Curbed's discovery) of 51 Astor Place ... and there was pretty much a Universal Ugh from commenters here and on Facebook about the look of the building... (Alex calls it DisAstor Place at Flaming Pablum...)

One of our favorite responses, via Richard Bensam:

It dwarfs its surroundings and is actually less appealing than the building it replaces -- something many previously thought impossible.

On the upside, now the herbivorous primates of the East Village will finally learn how to use the femur of an antelope to crack open the skulls of tapirs and become omnivores, ensuring their future evolution into humanity. Later, their remote descendants will discover an exact duplicate of 51 Astor Place buried on the Moon.

Several people asked if the developer could just keep the empty lot the way it looks now...

Bobby Williams took the above shots on Monday afternoon.

Well, anyway, the developer probably has a few dollars tied up in this project (whistling)...

Still, we can be democratic about it. Let's put it to an unbiased vote.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Updated:

Curbed is offering a $100 gift card to St. Mark's Bookshop for the best redesign of 51 Astor Place. Smurfs are always good.

Previously on EV Grieve:
51 Astor Place demolition begins July 1; 17 months to build new black-glass tower

East Village — the new Midtown?

Workers chopping down the trees at 51 Astor Place

Proposed plans now call for a 24-story residential building on 14th Street and Avenue C

Updated 6/15: L+M Development Partners is not a developer in this project. According to a spokesperson, L+M's only role was assisting NYCHA in selling air rights. The post has been modified to reflect this.

There are proposed plans to build a 24-story, 166-unit residential building — including 50 "affordable" units — at the long-vacant lot on the SW corner of 14th Street and Avenue C. The development would include retail space and a community facility. 

Tonight, CB3's Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee will hear a presentation from reps for New York City Housing Authority and Madison Realty Capital. 

The corner property — 644 E. 14th St. — has been in a stalled-development mode for years. (This corner property last housed the single-level R&S Strauss auto parts store, which closed in April 2009.) 

There are already approved plans here for a 15-floor mixed-use building, though there aren't any affordable units attached to this version. As revealed in the spring of 2021, several developers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby the city for NYCHA air rights to make this a larger structure with more housing.

This past spring, the NYCHA and Madison Realty Capital filed documents seeking a non-ULURP modification — known as an LSRD — to the development plan.

PincusCo first reported on this. Per their report:

The application seeks to modify the boundaries of the previously approved plans and zoning calculations by expanding the zoning lot to include 644 East 14th Street (Block 396, Lot 29). Through the zoning lot merger, the development rights from the existing LSRD comprised of Campos Plaza I and II, which are owned by a joint venture that includes NYCHA ... can be transferred to Block 396, Lot 29, a vacant property owned by Madison Realty Capital.

According to a presentation posted to the CB3 website, the benefits of this air-rights deal would: 

• "Generate revenue for NYCHA, which will fund repairs exclusively at Campos Plaza II."

• "Enhance the pedestrian experience for both Campos Plaza and the surrounding community with new ground floor retail, ground floor community facility, lighting and new street trees." 

• "Provide additional affordable housing units pursuant to the Affordable New York Program Option B." 

• "MRC will commit to a resident hiring plan."

The presentation includes a rendering of the proposed building, a "massing evolution" and a slide on the "appropriateness of height" ... 

As previously reported, Madison Realty Capital paid Opal Holdings $31.3 million for the property in May 2020. Opal Holdings bought the parcel in June 2016 for $23 million. 

Concerns over new plans

Meanwhile, there are concerns about the plan for the larger-scale development.

One group of locals started a Facebook group to help notify residents of the ongoing plans at No. 644.

"While we are all for the development of that corner ... and the affordable housing element of the plans, we are not happy with the sheer size of the footprint and the excessive height that goes along with the proposal," one of the organizers told EVG. "We believe it will have countless negative effects on the local community and is out of place in this neighborhood. One major, immediate concern is that they have done little outreach and have kept plans for the project very quiet, which seems to be an obvious strategy to avoid any scrutiny from the local public."

Before a presentation last month prior to CB3's Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee, Tenants Taking Control, a group of 100-plus long-term tenants in 15 East Village buildings owned by Madison Realty Capital, spoke out against the plans.

In a "warning letter" to CB3 members and other local elected officials, the group, which has had Madison Realty Capital as a landlord since 2017, alleged: "We believe from first-hand experience that they disregard East Village tenant and community needs for their own financial benefit."

Tonight's committee meeting starts at 6:30. You can find the Zoom link here. 

Week in Grieview

[A view downtown the other evening via Bobby Williams]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Shaun Martin found guilty of murder in 2013 crash at East Village Farm and Grocery (Wednesday)

Man stabbed with scissors in Tompkins Square Park (Monday)

Remembering Alan Vega (Monday)

At Village Kids Footwear (Thursday)

The Tang, a Chinese noodle bar, opens on First Avenue (Friday)

Last licks for Ludlow Guitars on the Lower East Side (Tuesday)

Dun-Well Doughnuts brings coffee and vegan doughnuts to St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

Thursday Kitchen is cafe by day with Korean tapas at night (Monday)

Logan Hicks bringing the story of his life to the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall (Wednesday)

Coffee shop slated for former Top A Nails space on Avenue A (Tuesday)

DumplingGo returning as Dumpling Guo on Second Avenue (Monday)

The evolution of Ben Shaoul (Monday)

Full reveal at NYU's expanded Academic Support Center on Lafayette and Fourth Street (Tuesday)

Signage arrives for Dahlia's-replacing salad and juice bar (Tuesday)

Former BARA space will serve Latin-American fare on East First Street (Thursday)

There are new owners for the empty lot at 14th Street and Avenue C (Wednesday)

About the new Astor Place (Monday)

Actor Adrian Greiner is a partner in the VNYL, opening in the former Nevada Smiths space (Friday)

Blink Fitness signage arrives at 100 Avenue A (Wednesday)

A look at Follia, opening soon in the former Mumbles space on 3rd Avenue (Tuesday)

Report: East Village bar owners opening the Gem Saloon in former Rodeo Bar space (Thursday)

Atla announces itself on Lafayette; coffee shop coming next door (Monday)

Now to the automotive section...on Seventh Street, a Pontiac Fiero pretends to be a Ferrari...



[Photos by Derek Berg]

...while a McLaren super car poses outside the Bowery Hotel...


[DB]

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Photo of the Williamsburg Bridge by Bobby Williams]

Victim of East 7th Street burglary discusses the incident (CBS 2)

More about "LES is More: Stories of Growing Up on the Lower East Side" happening tonight (DNAinfo)

Just a few more days to see the work of Richard Hambleton at Dorian Grey Gallery on East 9th Street (Dorian Grey)

At last, a hawk update from Tompkins Square Park (Gog in NYC)

Katz's unleashes the "Roast Beast Sandwich" (The Lo-Down)

New FDR overpass at East Houston Street (BoweryBoogie)

Tenement history at 342 E. 11th St. (Off the Grid)

Stories of drastic evolution in NYC neighborhoods includes short essays from Jeremiah Moss and EVG, among many others (Curbed)

Speaking of which: St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral School will go condo (Daily News)

The restaurant reviewer at The New York Times likes Tuome on East 5th Street (The New York Times)

Save Cafe Edison! (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Patti Smith and Jim Carroll at the gate (Flaming Pablum)

Why not?! Photos of a 12-year-old Christopher Walken dressed as a clown (Dangerous Minds)

And tomorrow night ... This local arts performance series is re-igniting again: The Spotlight Speakeasy at the Sanctuary on East Sixth Street from 9-11:30 p.m.

Artists performing:

YOKKO [Butoh dance]
TAMAR [Western Swing/Jazz]
VARYAMUSIC [Indie Rock]
BROOKLYN NOMADS [Arab Folk]

And FINALLY … an answer to a question that has been nagging at us over at 51 Astor Place…