Cherche Midi space on the market for new retail development on the Bowery at East Houston

[Via Google Streetview]

There's a new retail listing for 280-282 Bowery at East Houston.

The corner space is currently home to Keith McNally's bistro Cherche Midi while No. 282 houses Yasakart Restaurant Supply.

Here are details via RKF:

• At the nexus of SoHo, NoLIta, NoHo, The East Village and Lower East Side
• Steps from four major hotels: Bowery Hotel, Public Hotel, The Ace Hotel and CitizenM
• Across from Whole Foods Market, The New Museum and the International Center for Photography
• Second Floor space can be made available
• Lower Level can be converted to selling
• An additional 1,500 SF of Lower Level space can be made available in Space B

The rent is available upon request.

And here's the rendering showing the possibilities on this southwest corner of the Bowery and Houston...


[Image via RKF]

Rumors surfaced last month that McNally would be closing his four-year-old bistro. (A rep for McNally, who also runs the Odeon, Balthazar, Minetta Tavern and Augustine in the Beekman Hotel, confirmed to Grub Street that Cherche Midi will close in early June.)

This marks the second high-profile restaurant to close on the Bowery and East Houston since last August. Daniel Boulud shut down DBGB Kitchen and Bar after eight years in the Avalon Bowery complex between First Street and Houston.

If success restaurateurs like McNally and Boulud can't make these corners work... then what? An EVG reader left this comment on the previous Cherche Midi post:

My prediction for the gentrified Bowery, chain restaurants (as in Chipotle and Shake Shack, some run of the mall shops which most New Yorkers have never heard of, and all this surrounded by high end luxury condos. This is what the lack of urban planning and unleashed developer money brings.

Jane's Exchange is not closing!

[Image via Facebook]

Back in late March, the owners of Jane's Exchange, the children's and maternity retail and consignment store on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B, reported that they would likely have to close when their lease was up this summer.

However, co-owner Gayle Raskin remained cautiously optimistic that they could extend a lease with new owners.

Looks like it worked out. As they posted on Facebook:

Dear Friends,
WE ARE NOT CLOSING!!! WE ARE NOT CLOSING!!

WE WERE ABLE TO SECURE ANOTHER 5 YEARS ON OUR LEASE! YAY!!!

Gayle and Eva will continue their partnership through December 2018 at which time Gayle will leave and Yelena Ferrer will become Eva’s new partner beginning Jan. 1, 2019. Yelena has been a longtime consignor and we are so excited to welcome her to the fold.

We are overwhelmed by the love and support we have received from all of you. A number of you came forward with great ideas, financial and otherwise, to keep Jane’s Exchange going and it has been so appreciated. It takes a community to preserve local businesses and we value your ongoing participation in this effort.

It begins now — we need your word-of-mouth help to bring more customers to the store. Advertising is expensive as you can imagine. We will be making flyers available for online and hard-copy distribution.

We dodged the bullet this time. We are a children's and maternity store but even more than that, we are a service in the community. We are thrilled to be able to continue that service.

Consignment is a great way to recycle so PLEASE MAKE YOUR SPRING/SUMMER APPOINTMENTS AND THINK OF US BEFORE YOU GO ON AMAZON:)

Thanks,
Eva and Gayle

Jane's Exchange is now in its 24th year in business.

Previously

Reader report: Economy Foam & Futon is leaving 8th Street for Chelsea

EVG reader EJ shared the above photo... showing that Economy Foam & Futon is leaving its home of 15 years on West 8th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

Per EJ:

They close at the end of the month. But they're moving to Chelsea, though "under new ownership." The gent there said it'll be a much smaller space, so there will be many fewer offerings. Still lotsa stuff there at a discount before the move.

Economy Foam & Futon was a Lower East Side fixture, anchoring the corner of Houston and Allen from 1937 to 2003...maybe you bought a futon there...

No Malice Palace is closed again

No Malice Palace, the bar on Third Street just west of Avenue B, has been dark of late... a sign on the gate notes that they are "closed until further notice" ...



Owner Phil Sherman died right before Thanksgiving 2016... various signs on the gate early last year noted that they would reopen, but were just "waiting on legal things to happen."

NMP remained closed until early December, when it emerged as a pop-up holiday bar called Donner and Blitzen's Reindeer Lounge. No Malice Palace returned then in January ... and was in service until at least the second weekend of April, according go to various social media posts.

According to public records at the State Liquor Authority, the No Malice Palace liquor license expired back on Jan. 31.



Google and Facebook now list the bar, which first opened in 1999, as permanently closed.

The building that housed NMP, 197 E. Third St., is also on the sales market for the second time in three years.

CB3 to hear City Council report 'Planning for Retail Diversity'

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night, CB3's Economic Development Committee will hear a City Council report titled "Planning for Retail Diversity: Supporting NYC’s Neighborhood Businesses."

Brian Paul, the author of the City Council report, is presenting. CB3 hopes to support actions from this report. (You can find a PDF of "Planning for Retail Diversity" here.)

The meeting is open to the public... it starts at 6:30 p.m. (Wednesday, April 25) in the University Settlement at Houston Street Center (273 Bowery).

Rally for the Small Business Jobs Survival Act tomorrow at City Hall

As Jeremiah Moss wrote:

The Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA) is the best way we currently have to slow down the loss of our small businesses and the scourge of high-rent blight that is killing our streetscapes.

Recently, City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriquez reintroduced the SBJSA. Corey Johnson, the new speaker of the City Council, has pledged to give the bill a public hearing, and we hope it will go up for a vote and pass in full force.

Find more background here. The rally starts tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10 a.m. at City Hall.

Rue St. Denis is closing after 25 years of selling vintage clothing and accessories on Avenue B

[Photo by EVG reader Brucie]

Several EVG readers shared the news that Rue St. Denis, the vintage clothing and accessories shop, is closing on Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street.

The boutique, which sells unworn vintage collections that span multiple decades, opened here in 1993. (The shop debuted on the Upper West Side in 1990.)

Founder Jean-Paul Buthier and his partner Riccardo Bonechi are closing the store for a change of pace, not because of rising rents or declining sales, as The New York Times reported. (The article from the Times notes how popular Rue St. Denis is for the costume designers of the film and television industry.)

No word yet on an official closing date... for now, there are sales...

Pop-up theater in the former Pork Pie Hatters on 9th Street

[Photo by Steven]

Out of the Box Theatrics is starting its 2018 season with a production of Adam Rapp's "Nocture," staged inside the former Pork Pie Hatters on Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Previews start tonight ... with a short run through May 6. Find tickets here.

Here's more about the company via their website:

Since its 2015 inception, Out of the Box Theatrics (OOTB) has been committed to hiring a diverse company of actors, regardless of gender, race, creed, ethnicity, or disability. We are dedicated to producing new and classic works while challenging audiences to experience work outside of their expectations with a fresh perspective in site-specific locations.

roviding accessible and individualized experiences to many different ages, ethnicities, disabilities, gender and sexual identifications of all kinds. By offering performances that speak to both experiences they are confronted with as well as perspective beyond their own backyard, OOTB serves enthusiastic patrons of culture and art and underserved communities equally.

H/T Veronica!

440 East 9th Street is home to an old hat shop that we are transforming into a bookstore for this production of ‘Nocturne’! We are so excited to share this immersive experience with you! We are truly getting site specific here! The play takes place in the LES - "Mrs. Levitsky, a Nabokov fanatic. She lives on Tenth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, next to a Russian and Turkish bathhouse, where on a cool night the smell of eucalyptus drifts up from the courtyard and in through the window to his 9-by-9 room." ^^^THATS WHERE WE ARE! How cool is this? . . . . . #nocturne #ootb #immersive #nonprofit #offbroadway #sitespecific #oneman #les

A post shared by Out of the Box Theatrics (@ootbtheatrics) on Apr 19, 2018 at 3:03pm PDT

Cafe in the works for 2 St. Mark's Place, previously Ayios and St. Mark's Ale House

[Photo yesterday by Steven]

CB3 hasn't listed the dates yet for its committee meetings in May. However, one eager applicant has posted notice of a new liquor license application for 2 St. Mark's Place.

The applicant is called 2 St Mark's Cafe LLC ... and is eyeing the former home of Ayios Greek Rotisserie at 2 St. Mark's Place at Third Avenue/Cooper Square. That restaurant closed at the end of 2017 after 16 months in business. Previously, the address was the St. Mark's Ale House, which had a 21-year run until July 2016. (And once upon a time it was the second location of the Five Spot Cafe.)

No other information is available just yet about the applicant. The CB3-SLA committee is May 14, per the flyer.

[Updated] Proposed addition for 827-831 Broadway is back in front of the LPC today

A revised proposal to add a (slightly smaller) four-story glass addition to the landmarked buildings at 827-831 Broadway between 12th Street and 13th Street returns to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) this morning.

Back in January, LPC commissioners told the design team to return with a revised proposal, as Curbed reported. (Find a PDF of the new proposal here.)

Last November, the LPC voted to landmark the circa-1866 cast-iron buildings where artists Willem and Elaine de Kooning and Paul Jenkins, among others, lived and worked. That decision spared the address from demolition. As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel in 2015 for $60 million.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) campaigned for more than 18 months to help preserve these buildings. Read more about their efforts here.

Updated 2 p.m.

The LPC rejected the plans, per the GVSHP...

Great news! @nyclandmarks again rejects plan for out of context glass topper for 827-831 Broadway, 1866 former de Kooning studios we fought to get landmarked and save from wrecking ball!@CarlinaRivera @DeborahJGlick @bradhoylman @LizKrueger pic.twitter.com/JnYEV78kUc

— GVSHP (@GVSHP) April 24, 2018

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway

There's a proposed addition for the recently landmarked 827-831 Broadway

Report: LPC rejects glassy addition for landmarked 827-831 Broadway