Monday, November 9, 2015

Noted


[Photo today by Bobby Williams]

Part of the fence along East Seventh Street near Avenue A is missing from Tompkins Square Park. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone around to ask what's going on... so. Maybe to make it easier to move the Samuel S. Cox statue to the top of 100 Avenue A as a way to compete with Red Square? Other less-stupid theories are welcome, probably.

Let's take a look at 347 Bowery, now and in the future



At last look in early September, the first floor was just visible at 347 Bowery, where a view-blocking (if you live right next door at 52E4), 13-story, 30,000 square-foot mixed-use residential development is rising.

Now it looks to be past the halfway mark at 7 (or 8?) floors here at East Third Street ...



Developer Urban Muse has designs on five 3-bedroom homes ranging from 2,100 to 4,000 square feet, two 2,000-square-foot commercial units and one 6,800-square-foot retail unit.

Annabelle Selldorf, who designed the swanko 10 Bond Street, is listed as the architect of record. Here's a rendering for the building that we spotted on her firm's website (when you click on the image for more info there, you get a "page not found" message)...



Oh, balconies! Anyway, thoughts on the new building?

Expect something else new right here some day. As previously noted, the lot adjacent to 347 Bowery at 1-3 E. Third St. is also for sale as a development site.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Salvation Army's former East Village Residence will be demolished on the Bowery

Looks like 347 Bowery will be home to a 13-floor mixed-use residential development

The future of 347 Bowery (sorta!) revealed

Reader report: The northeast corner of Avenue A and 12th Street changes hands



An EVG reader writes in:

Just received a tenant notice letter that 194-196 Avenue A and 503-505 East 12th Street have been sold to Avenue A Corner Owner LLC c/o Dalan Management Associates. Marolda Properties was pretty terrible to deal with these last few years, wonder if Dalan Management will be better or worse.

I have a feeling that chances of us getting priced out next year are high. Womp.

Terms of the deal haven't apparently made public record just yet. (The LLC has an address in Nassau County.) And we don't know much about Dalan. Here's their bio:

"We are a real estate owner and manager focused on improving and adding value to multifamily and commercial properties. Our portfolio includes residential properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Washington DC, and Phoenix, Arizona. We also have commercial holdings in Manhattan."

As some of you may recall, a fire tore through the building in March 2006. The corner retail space housed the Raven from July 1998 through the time of the fire.

The building was, of course, rebuilt, though not without causing some suspicion among neighbors.

The storefront at No. 196 is currently for lease with an asking rent of $10,500 a month. Avenue A Wine & Liquor closed here back in August.

Now at Ray's Candy Store — popcorn shrimp



EVG regular Peter Brownscombe notes that Ray has introduced the latest menu item here at Ray's Candy Store, 113 Avenue A near East Seventh Street...

Popcorn shrimp...



Served without — or with! — fries...

34 1/2 St. Mark's Place is for sale



The 6-floor building between Second Avenue and Third Avenue recently arrived on the market.

Here's the listing via LoopNet:

Fully occupied 6 floor apartment building with 11 residential units and 1 retail store. There is an additional courtyard unit which is not registered and currently vacant.

St. Marks Place is the cultural hub of the East Village and close to New York University and Cooper Union.

• 6, three-bedroom apartments with Fair Market Rent
• 5, two-bedroom Rent-Stabilized apartments
• 1 Retail Store and basement with Fair Market Rent
• 1 studio courtyard apartment, unregistered and vacant

Price: $9.35 million

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Week in Grieview


[Wednesday morning on St. Mark's Place]

RIP Hank Penza (Thursday)

At East Village Meat Market's Pierogi Tasting Day (Monday)

MTA's 2015–2019 Capital Plan includes another entrance for the L stop on First Avenue (Tuesday)

Demo permits filed to raze southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 10th Street (Tuesday)

Ho no: SantaCon announces Dec. 12 date for SantaCon (Tuesday)

Down comes the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office (Monday)

The retail space at Ben Shaoul's 100 Avenue A is available for $24.5 million; plus, naked model marketing clarification! (Friday)

The Barrel has closed on Stuyvesant Street (Tuesday)

Tumor time for the Provident Loan Society Building on East Houston? (Monday)

Out and About with Jose Ilarraza (Wednesday)

City booting P.C. Richard (and his sons!) on East 14th Street (Friday)

Lit Lounge returning to face CB3's SLA committee (Thursday)

Snickers Bar Squirrel (Tuesday)

Le Petit Parisien opens on East Seventh Street (Thursday)

Southern California-based Pressed Juicery opens first NYC storefront on Lafayette Street (Tuesday)

Tac N Roll slated for East Fourth Street (Monday)

179 E. Third St. is for sale (Tuesday)

Workers have to remove the last willow on the St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery property (Tuesday)

Please treat Whole Foods Market® Bowery like your own living room (Monday)

On the CB3-SLA docket: A new applicant for the former Bodhi Tree space (Wednesday)

The Fantastic Tea Shop is for sale (and for rent) (Friday)

Christo in front of the Christodora (Monday)

... and who has the next match?


[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams]

A pre-dawn planetary show over East 3rd Street



Local astronomy buff Felton Davis writes in this morning ...

Fantastic pre-dawn lineup of planets in the east over 3rd Street: Jupiter in Leo, Mars and Venus in Virgo, and last but not least the waning crescent Moon coming up just before the Sun.





Meanwhile, you can check out some photos of the 2nd Avenue Star Watchers right here.

Noted



EVG reader Trevor Ristow spotted this on Avenue A and East Sixth Street last evening ... a friendly invitation to hang out for the evening. The arrow points to a drawing of someone holding a burning cigarette of some sort. (Above the "provide good" is an assurance for the NYPD that this is a cigarette.)

Also, groups welcome! Not sure if this was a one-night-only event or if the sign leaver will be back for a return engagement.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

[Updated] Report: Missing teen with autism may be in the East Village



A 16-year-old New Jersey resident with autism has been missing since yesterday. According to the Daily News this afternoon, Adam Rogers may be in the East Village. (The article doesn't offer any explanation as to why.)

According to a report at New Jersey station 101.5, Rogers' family found his bicycle at the Point Pleasant station, and found that he’d taken a credit card, which had been used to purchase a one-way ticket to Penn Station.

His mother said there hasn't been any difficulty at home. "This is just something he must have gotten in his head to do, and he did it," she said.

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Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call (800) THE-LOST or the Point Pleasant Borough Police Department at (732) 892-0060.

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Updated 11 p.m.

The boy was found safe in Penn Station, according to reports.

About the Stuy Town affordable units deal with the city

The term sheet for the agreement between the city and the Blackstone Group to keep 5,000 affordable units at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village is 12 pages long. The Real Deal sifted through it and noted the following:

"None of the Affordable Units will be used by Purchaser on a transient basis or as a hotel, motel, hospital, nursing home, sanitarium, rest home or trailer park."

And one point to reiterate, as The Real Deal summarizes:

Under the agreement, Blackstone can likely reduce the number of affordable units from 5,000 to almost zero between 2035 and 2040.

Blackstone signed a contract last month to buy the 11,000-apartment complex for $5.3 billion in partnership with Canadian pension fund manager Ivanhoe Cambridge.

You can find the PDF of the term sheet here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Local politicos seek answers from the Blackstone Group on the Stuy Town air rights deal

ConEd safety alert at the shuttered Organic Avenue on 3rd Avenue

An EVG reader notes the arrival of a ConEd notice — marked "safety alert" — on the former Organic Avenue storefront on Third Avenue at East Ninth Street... the flyer notes that the gas service is still active here, "but we do not have an account holder on file."

The flyer lists some numbers to call for the storeowner to set up an account. The entire OA chainlet shut down for good after business on Oct. 15.

Report: Preservationists speak out against making Union Square Park a city scenic landmark


[Photo from Oct. 30 via Bobby Williams]

Interesting story here via New York Yimby yesterday.

On Thursday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing about designating Union Square Park a city scenic landmark. (While it is already a National Historic Landmark, that designation doesn't protect it from changes within the park.)

Per NYY:

Jack Taylor, speaking for the Union Square Community Coalition, said that designating the park as it is today “would be a historical travesty.” “And it pains me personally, as a committed preservationist, to take a position that seemingly dismisses landmark protection for a fabled but now flawed part of New York City history,” he added.

For starters, there is about one block of actual park ... and that has been altered already through the years. In short, it lacks "historical integrity," as a rep from the Historic Districts Council put it.

Head on over to Yimby for the full story and an archival photo.