Deconstruction at Theater for the New City; Homo Eruptus at Howl! Happening

A new group show opens this evening (5-8) at the Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

Per the Facebook event page: "Deconstruction will deal with the use of construction signs and materials through a means of artistic expression."

The work will be on display through March 29.

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East Village-based artist Scooter LaForge has a new exhibition opening tomorrow evening (6-9) at Howl! Happening, 6 E. First St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Per the Howl! website:

Homo Eruptus [is] a new body of work by Scooter LaForge including large, mural-size paintings that mine the artist’s fertile inner emotional realm. Whether it’s expressed on the mammoth pictorial canvases on view at the gallery, or a t-shirt or cast-off article of clothing — Scooter paints with an earnestness that responds in the moment to what he sees and hears and feels about the world around him.

The show will remain up through March 13.

No one seems to want to keep these historic Anglo-Italianate townhouses on 10th Street

Off and on through the [EVG] years, those beautiful single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouses that date to the 1850s at 123-125 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue have been for sale.

And now they are both back on the market here in the St. Mark's Historic District. The listings arrived yesterday on Streeteasy. (No. 123 is here... and No. 125 is here.)

The Post first took note of this. We'll let them do the lifting:

One, at 123 E. 10th St., listed with Mark Amadei of Sotheby’s International Realty for $7.69 million. The other, 125 E. 10th St., hit the market for $8.3 million and is represented by Jason Haber of Warburg Realty.

But together, according to the Warburg listing, both can be sold together for $15.99 million.

“123 E. 10th St. was built at the same time as [125 E. 10th St.] and they share one of the largest private gardens in Manhattan,” the Warburg listing adds.

Fun cost-of things fact: In 2011, the two-townhouse combo price was $12.95 million.

A few pics now. These are from No. 125... inside and out...





As TMZ Grieve reported off and on in 2012 and 2013 and, what the hell, 2014, Mary-Kate Olsen and her beau Olivier Sarkozy bought No. 123, and they rented No. 125. Eventually they sold No. 123 and went off elsewhere.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Your chance to see inside a historic townhouse on East 10th Street tonight (complimentary wine alert!)

Report: Historic Anglo-Italianate townhouse on East 10th Street to serve as Olsen twin love nest

Someone has bought the former Olivier Sarkozy, Mary-Kate Olsen 'love nest' on East 10th St.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Mr. Sarkozy

The lobbyists behind the air-rights transfer and zoning variance for 3 St. Mark's Place

Updated 2/14: The CB3 committee reportedly voted down the air-rights transfer.

Tonight, reps for Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC) will appear before CB3's Landmarks Committee at 6:30 to discuss transferring the air rights from the landmarked — and under-renovation — Hamilton-Holly House across the street at 4 St. Mark's Place.

With these air rights and approved zoning variance, the Morris Adjimi-designed building REEC planned for the northeast corner of St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue would rise to 10 stories — twice the size of the original plans.

And as you sort through the various zoning documents (this link goes to the PDF on the CB3 website with details on the proposal) and public records for REEC, some familiar names emerge from behind the scenes.

As public documents show, REEC has several lobbyists working on their behalf, including Capalino & Associates and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.


[Click on image for more detail]

James Capalino, arguably New York's most prolific lobbyist, has ties to the Rivington House scandal... and last spring he reportedly agreed to a $40,000 settlement with the state's ethics watchdog that investigated his dealings with a nonprofit created to promote Mayor de Blasio's agenda. (In August 2016, de Blasio said that he cut ties with Capalino, who has represented several big-money developers seeking City Hall approval for their projects.)

Meanwhile, as the Post reported last November, the city paid Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel LLP $2.6 million, de Blasio's legal-defense bill during investigations by state and federal prosecutors starting in 2016. Investigators closed the probes in 2017 without bringing charges against the mayor. (In late January, City Council passed a bill that allows elected officials to fundraise to pay off legal bills, though it excludes lobbyists, holding companies and corporations from donating, as The Wall Street Journal reported.)

Public documents show the scope of lobbying work that the firm Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel is doing on behalf of REEC...


[Click on image for more detail]

This past October, REEC filed plans for a 5-story, 29,030-square-foot building at 3 St. Mark's Place.

A retainer agreement from Capalino to REEC on public record (PDF here) dated from last May 8 shows that there were already plans in place for a building larger than the current zoning allowed. The letter doesn't state dimensions for the building, only that: "Consultation will provide pre-certification and post-certification government relations expertise regarding the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure [ULURP]."

Tonight's public meeting is the beginning of the review process, which requires an application to the LPC followed by an application to the City Planning Commission for the special permit. (Read this primer on an explanation of the ULURP process.)

REEC picked up the 99-year leasehold for the properties here for nearly $150 million in November 2017. The corner assemblage is owned by the Gabay family.

The CB3 Landmarks Committee meeting tonight is at the JASA Green Residence, 200 E. Fifth St. at the Bowery.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: NE corner of St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue will yield to a 7-story office building

Demolition permits filed for northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

End is nearing for the businesses on the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

New building plans revealed for 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Developers of 3 St. Mark's Place are looking to double the size of their proposed office building at 3rd Avenue to 10 floors with air-rights deal

Concern over potential air-rights transfer for new office building on St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue

Donosita on Avenue B is for lease

Here's another address to add to the rundown of empty storefronts on Avenue B. As previously noted, Donostia, the wine-and-tapas bar at 155 Avenue B between Ninth Street and 10th Street, had been closed since late November.

There's now a for-lease sign in the front window (and both Google and Yelp list the cafe as permanently closed) ...





According to the online listing, the rent is $3,824 per month, though there is key money — $175,000 "or best offer."

Donostia opened in November 2013. In 2017, Food & Wine named them one of "The Best Wine Bars In the U.S." This past October, Michelin named Donostia as one of its Bib Gourmand-designated restaurants for the fourth consecutive year.

In 2017, co-owner Jorge de Yarza reportedly decided to lobby for developer Gregg Singer, who has been trying, for 20-plus years, to covert the former P.S. 64 building around the corner on 10th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C into student housing. DNAinfo reported that de Yarza helped gather nearly 900 signatures in support of the dorm plan, asking the city to allow it to move forward.

Per DNAinfo:

The massive building's prolonged vacancy has made the block dark and unsafe, and has encouraged loitering, de Yarza added.

"All the places in the immediate area, they suffer," he said. "It's one of those stretches of 10th Street you don't even want to walk by, and it's a shame."

According to a post at the Lo-Down from September 2017, de Yarza also helped Singer support candidates running against Carlina Rivera in the most recent District 2 City Council race. Rivera, who won the election, is an ally of previous Councilmember Rosie Mendez, who has long opposed the dorm plan.

In November 2017, de Yarza helped organize a pro-dorm rally at City Hall, an event where a lobbyist later admitted they hired extras to fill out the group, The Villager reported.

Gulping gargoyles: Harry Potter-themed Steamy Hallows signage reveal on 6th Street

The Steamy Hallows signage has arrived at 514 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B, site of the coming-soon Harry Potter-themed coffee shop.

This is the latest venture from Zach Neil, the pop-up theme bar entrepreneur behind Beetle House on Sixth Street as well as the now-closed Will Ferrell bar Stay Classy on the LES and the short-lived 'Merica NYC on Sixth Street.

Here's what to expect via the Steamy Hallows Instagram account: "This witchy goth coffee shop serves up delicious coffee and tea potions, huge homemade cookies, in an atmosphere inspired by Harry Potter & Halloween."

And amNY had more details in an article from Jan. 11:

When it opens around Valentine's Day (Feb. 14), Steamy Hallows will be decked out with oddities like shrunken heads, a 75-year-old stuffed owl, actual witch potions and an Irish cauldron from the 1700s that steams in the window all day, he said.

"It's what you'd expect a wand store to look like if it was a real place ... The atmosphere inside will be pretty over-the-top from the way the coffee is crafted to the ingredients used to Instagram-worthy shots."

Its coffee will be made by mixologists dressed in all black as if they were crafting a potion — muddling fresh herbs and extracts, coffee, dark chocolate, rose petals and other fresh ingredients.

As we noted on Jan. 9, Steamy Hallows was taking the place of Cake Shake, the extreme milk-shake shop that debuted back in August.

Tuesday's parting shot

Thanks to EVG regular jdx for this photo today... (and find more of his work at Instagram)...

Sleet nothings

Late-afternoon sleet shot via EVG regular Lola Sáenz from Tompkins Square Park...

Concern over potential air-rights transfer for new office building on St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue

Updated 2/14: The CB3 committee reportedly voted down the air-rights transfer.

As I first reported, reps for Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC) will appear before CB3's Landmarks Committee tomorrow night at 6:30 (Feb. 13) to discuss transferring the air rights from the landmarked — and under-renovation — Hamilton-Holly House across the street at 4 St. Mark's Place.

With these air rights and approved zoning variance, the Morris Adjimi-designed building REEC planned for the northeast corner of St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue would rise to 10 stories — twice the size of the original plans. (This link will take you to the PDF on the CB3 website with details on the proposal.)

Meanwhile, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation expressed its objections to the transfer and additional height of the building. According to a new post on the GVSHP website:

The planned 10-story, 175 ft. tall office tower is part of the growing wave of office development we are seeing in this area along 3rd and 4th Avenues and University Place and Broadway, spurred on by the growth of the expanding tech industry’s "Silicon Alley," and the recent approval by the City Council of the Mayor’s Tech Hub just a few blocks away on 14th Street.

The transfer of the air rights to increase the size of the planned tower ... is subject to the approval of various city agencies. We feel strongly that the city should not abet oversized and inappropriate office development in this area. The planned office tower displaces several long-time local businesses, as well as a nearly 200-year-old house.

Tomorrow's meeting is the beginning of the review process, which requires an application to the LPC followed by an application to the City Planning Commission for the special permit.

The CB3 Landmarks Committee meeting is open to the public (and is open to public comment). The meeting is at the JASA Green Residence, 200 E. Fifth St. at the Bowery.

The links below have more history about what has transpired on this corner...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: After 40 years, punk rock mainstay Trash and Vaudeville is leaving St. Mark's Place

4 St. Mark's Place is for sale

More residential units and a 5th-floor addition in the works for landmarked 4 St. Mark's Place

You'll be back: Look at the renovated Hamilton-Holly House on St. Mark's Place

The Shake Shack effect? McDonald's on 3rd Avenue at St. Mark's Place has closed after 20 years

Report: NE corner of St. Mark's Place and 3rd Avenue will yield to a 7-story office building

Demolition permits filed for northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

End is nearing for the businesses on the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

The Continental gets a 3-month reprieve

New building plans revealed for 3rd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Developers of 3 St. Mark's Place are looking to double the size of their proposed office building at 3rd Avenue to 10 floors with air-rights deal

Raising awareness of the vacant storefronts in the East Village

On Saturday, members of the Cooper Square Committee, FABnyc, the East Village Community Coalition and the Greenwich Village Society For Historic Preservation were out on Avenue B talking to residents about the surplus of vacant storefronts.

They invited people walking by 44 Avenue B between Third Street and Fourth Street "to think about what they need in the neighborhood that could fit in the currently empty space."

Here's more via the Cooper Square Committee:

There are over 200 vacant storefronts in the East Village, according to a count done by EVCC over the summer and fall. On Avenue B, nearly one in five storefronts is empty.

The event organizers are asking for the City Council to introduce policies and legislation that will protect, support and preserve small businesses in New York. Specifically, they are advocating for a citywide vacancy registry and penalty on landlords who deliberately warehouse space.

This local action is connected to the #EndCommercialVacancy campaign, a citywide effort coordinated by United for Small Business NYC (USBNYC).

Among the suggestions passersby made for businesses to fill some of these vacant spaces: a bakery selling fresh bread and a store offering affordable healthy food.

From the EVG archives:
There are more than 20 empty storefronts along Avenue B (December 2008)

The Marshal serves notice at Tapanju Turntable on 4th and B

Tapanju Turntable, which sold Korean tapas and color-changing beer towers, went dark in the late fall on the northwest corner of Avenue B and Fourth Street. At the time, a sign on the door noted "a gas issue."

There hadn't been much, if any, activity here in recent months.

Now EVG reader Alexis shares this photo... showing that the Marshal came calling, with the landlord taking legal possession of the space.



So there likely won't be an encore presentation of Tapanju Turntable, which (re)opened in December 2017, a rebranded version of Turntable 5060 (same owners), which debuted in July 2015. (And once upon it time, this was Kate's Joint for 16 years.)

Also at the same address... the Marshal posted a notice (h/t Alexa!) on the former Nobody is Perfect next door on Fourth Street...



Nobody Is Perfect closed last August. Bistro owner Mario Carta told me this in an email at the time: "The gas in the entire building, including the apartments and the restaurant next to us, has been shut down for six months. We were unable to provide a decent menu to our customers during that period of time and that affected our business knowing that we were open for less than a year trying to build a clientele in the neighborhood."



Five restaurants — Nobody Is Perfect, B4, Piccola Positano, Tonda and E.U. — have come and gone at 235 E. Fourth St. in the past 10 years.