Noted

It looks like the latest unlicensed weed shop is going by Green Dispensary here on the SE corner of First Avenue and 10th Street. (Thanks to Steven for the photo!)

More retail spaces are arriving even as Mayor Adams and DA Bragg are cracking down on illegal storefront operations by targeting the landlords. 

The previous tenant on this corner, the E. 10th St. Finest Deli, closed in December 2020. 

Signage alert: Gotham Burger Social Club on Essex Street

Signage went up Tuesday on the recently renovated building on the NW corner of Essex and Rivington for Gotham Burger Social Club...

This is the first permnant space for owner Mike Puma, who has been operating in recent years as a pop-up from places like Ray's on Chrystie Street. Signage points to a spring opening.

Ashes to go from 9th and B

Photos by Stacie Joy 

On this Ash Wednesday, Pastor Will offered "ashes to go" from the corner of Ninth Street and Avenue B outside Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish ... pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike stopped by while EVG contributor Stacie Joy was there...

444 E. 13th St. is on the auction block

444 E. 13th St., a residential building between Avenue A and First Avenue, is available via an auction starting Monday. 

According to the listing, the opening bid is $1.3 million. 

Here's more... 

... the property is a six-story, 17-unit mixed-use walk-up building totaling 12,384 square feet. Eight of the 16 residential units are Free Market, while the remaining eight are Rent Stabilized. The units consist of a mix between one-bedrooms (4), two-bedrooms (9), and three bedrooms (3) apartments. The commercial space is currently vacant and is approximately 812 square feet, with a full basement space featuring 8.5-foot ceiling heights. 

This was the first East Village building that disgraced landlord Raphael Toledano purchased, paying $6.1 million in January 2015. 

In the spring of 2015, rent-regulated tenants at 444 accused Toledano and a management company he hired of harassment and intimidation. A staff attorney at the Urban Justice Center, who represented the 13th Street tenants, told reporters during a rally outside the building in May 2015 that "there are tape-recorded conversations where the landlord is threatening to drop dynamite on the building and then let everyone 'figure it out themselves.'"

In 2015, Toledano agreed to pay more than $1 million to settle the harassment claims.

In February 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a court victory against Toledano. An order by the New York Supreme Court barred him from engaging in any New York real-estate business activity for at least five years, at which point he can petition the court for re-entrance.

In May 2021, Madison Realty Capital closed on Toledano's bankrupt East Village portfolio. Toledano had received $124 million in cash and lines of credit from MRC to finance his $97 million purchase of the buildings. 

Toledano, who was in his mid-20s at the time, purchased 28 buildings in two separate portfolios from the Tabak family for $140 million in 2015. Experienced real-estate players raised red flags about Toledano's heavy reliance on debt.  

Previously on EV Grieve:

Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building' 

East Village Buyers moving from 3rd Street to Avenue A

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Thanks to a reader tip, we know the new tenant for the under-renovation retail space at 39 Avenue A. 

The East Village Buyers consignment shop will be moving from 150 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B to the previous Essex Card Shop storefront between Second Street and Third Street. 

Owner Gabriel Shaulov (second from left in the above photo) told me that he hopes to be in the new space in about a month and that he'd been waiting for more than two years to access the much-larger retail spot in the NYCHA-owned First Houses. 

The business model will be the same: a high-end consignment shop specializing in sneakers, jewelry and handbags, among other items.

Until 2020, No. 39 space was home to Essex Card Shop... which moved one block to the north.  

More details about Balkan StrEAT, opening this spring on 2nd Avenue

As previously mentioned, a fast-casual restaurant, Balkan StrEAT, is in the works for the NW corner of Second Avenue and Ninth Street (the former Starbucks). 

An outpost opened on Jan. 24 in the West Village ... prompting this feature last week in Restaurant Hospitality ... which provides some details about what to expect here via chef William Djuric and business partner Jason Correa...

After attending culinary school, Djuric worked in high-end kitchens like Bouchon Café & Bakery, Gramercy Tavern, and Momofuku Ssam Bar. Correa has worked with the TAO Group for the past 10 years, most recently in the role of director of operations, overseeing day-to-day operations at several of the group's New York establishments. 

In early 2020, Djuric began experimenting with cevapi (Balkan sausages) and other traditional Balkan dishes inspired by his father’s Serbian heritage and his own childhood summers spent in the former Yugoslavia. Balkan StrEAT was born out of a desire to open a restaurant featuring the foods of Djuric's childhood. 

Balkan StrEAT serves traditional Balkan foods found throughout the diverse region, which includes Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Albania. The menu highlights regional favorites, including grilled items like the cevapi, which can be served as a sandwich or a platter. There are also Balkan-style burgers, burek (stuffed phyllo dough pies), and kiflice (traditional crescent-shaped rolls with savory or sweet fillings) 

The menu features rotating seasonal specials like stuffed pork schnitzel and goulash, and desserts include walnut baklava and Balkan donuts called krofne. 

You can find the menu, including fresh baked goods, here.

Jewelry brand opening an outpost on 1st Avenue

Jewelry brand PlayHardLookDope is opening a retail space on First Avenue between Second Street and Third Street. The signage arrived this past week.

Company founders Jon and Ebony started the business in 2017 with a fold-out table in a small popup store on Herald Square ... before opening a flagship store in White Plains.

Urban Wine & Spirits was in this storefront before moving to the corner of Third Street in late 2021.

Tuesday's parting video

 

Video and text by Greg Masters 

Following a Mardi Gras celebration at Two Boots, where owner Phil Hartman passed out free Swamp Witch Pizza, Boudin Bombinis and beads, the Mona's Marching Band led a second line up Avenue A, through Tompkins Square Park and into Mona's on Avenue B between 13th Street and 14th Street.

Tuesday's parting shot

Actually a Fat Tuesday parting shot ... on Seventh Street via Derek Berg...

Hold it now: No porta potties for Tompkins Square Park during the 18-month field-house renovation

Reconstruction of the Tompkins Square Park field house is expected to start next month. And according to a Parks Department official, during this 18-month project, the city will not provide any portable toilets for public use.

A resident shared an email from a Parks official, who explained that porta potties were not part of the contract "and cannot be supplied during construction." 

The alternative for public use during this period: The restrooms at the McKinley Playground on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue adjacent to P.S. 63/the Neighborhood School. (The official incorrectly stated that McKinley is on Avenue A.) 

Hopefully, the construction workers will have access to a closer temp toilet during the reconstruction.

The other day, we walked from the center of the Park (the muddy entrance to where the lawn used to be) to McKinley.

Walking at a fairly brisk clip took us five minutes and 40 seconds to get to our temp restroom destination ...

So roughly 12 minutes to and from, not counting time at McKinley. 

Meanwhile, we've had a possible sneak preview of what's to come during the reconstruction in Tompkins Square Park. As we've reported (here and here and here), the public restrooms have been locked to the public since early November. 

Parks officials told us last November that a malfunctioning boiler and a broken pipe in the basement of the field house are to blame. And the Parks Department decided to wait for the reconstruction to make the repairs.

In recent months, readers and residents have noted an uptick in people relieving themselves around the Park (photo below by Derek Berg) and between cars parked along Avenue B and Seventh Street.

Granted, the restrooms in Tompkins, with missing doors and toilet seats, among other things, desperately needed a makeover ... though they were suitable for prompting some nostalgia...

“You’ve used worse restrooms than this,” I whisper to myself in Tompkins Square Park. “Remember Mars Bar?”

— JP (@jessiepeterson) May 17, 2019

A 2019 comptroller's report found that Chinatown and the Lower East Side had the highest percentage (at 40%) of parks restrooms rated as "unacceptable" in the five boroughs.

As for the renovation, per the Parks website, the work is slated to be completed in September 2024. 

So that's two summers without toilets for Park visitors (unless a local elected official can find some financing for the rental and maintenance). The city does provide toilets for the Park's major events, including the Dance Parade in May and the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in August.

Perhaps adult diapers and portable toilets will become the must-have accessories for gatherings in Tompkins Square Park in 2023 and 2024.