Saturday's opening shot

Catching the sunrise from Tompkins Square Park this morning... the EVGcast (aka the Weather Channel app) shows that we're in for sunny skies with temps in the 40s through Thursday at least...

Catch the Drift

 

London-based trio Night Tapes has released several singles of late... the video here is for a track from December titled "Drifting," which the band describes as an "existentialist pop song."

Music venue wanted for former Rockwood Music Hall 2 space on the Lower East Side

A recent arrival on the rental market: 192 Allen St. between Houston and Stanton, the former home of the Rockwood Music Hall 2 space. 

The listing (PDF here) via Gavios Realty Group shows an interest in keeping the space as a music venue...

The listing also notes that the 1,500-square-foot space includes high-end sound equipment, a stage and professional lighting. No word on the asking rent. 

Rockwood Music Hall, facing financial challenges, announced in November that the venue was "getting back to basics" and closing its Stage 2 space. Stage 1 remains in use for live music as it has for nearly 20 years. 

Stage 2 opened in 2010 and was the larger space with a 175-person capacity. (Stage 1 holds 50 people.)

Report: Kushner Cos. continues East Village exit plan

EVG file photo of 170-174 E. 2nd St. 

After sucking the life out of its East Village portfolio, the Kushner Cos. continues selling off its East Village properties. 

According to The Real Deal, the company has just sold five apartment buildings to Penn South Capital for $41 million: two buildings at 170-174 E. Second St., 325 E. 10th St., 23 Avenue A, and 49 ½ First Ave. 

Per TRD: 

The multifamily sale is Kushner's third in the neighborhood in as many months. The firm unloaded six East Village properties to David Gleitman's Targo Capital Partners for about $58 million in late December. In November, Kushner sold 504-508 E. 12th St. to Sabet Group for nearly $20 million. Kushner’s East Village exit was over a year in the making. 

The firm started shopping 18 buildings in the Manhattan neighborhood in late 2022. Since 2018, it has turned its focus to building a suburban apartment portfolio that spans Maryland, Virginia, and the firm’s home state of New Jersey.

At one point, Kushner Cos. was the second-largest owner of East Village residential buildings, trailing only Steve Croman. 

Previously on EV Grieve:
• More about Jared Kushner's East Village buying spree

• Tenants claim: Kushner and Westminster want to destroy this building's beautiful garden

• Reports outline how Kushner Companies is aggressively trying to empty 170-174 E. 2nd St.

• Local politicos join residents of 2 Jared Kushner-owned buildings to speak out about poor living conditions, alleged harassment 

Looking at the Astor Place CVS renovation plans

Over at the CVS on Astor Place, renovations, including aisle rearrangement and new self-checkouts (now in place), continue. 

EVG reader Jacob Ford found the plans for the reno on display ... (they're upside down, so you may need to tilt your computer/phone upside down, too, for a more accurate look)...

The new self-checkouts come out at a time when other chains are doing away with them. As Boing Boing called them, "the shopping equivalent of an automated phone menu." 

CNN reported on Jan. 23: 

A newly-released study by researchers at Drexel University published in the Journal of Business Research found that "regular checkout" – the kind featuring a human cashier – makes customers more loyal to a store and more likely to revisit in the future than self-checkout. The study comes as some companies remove self-checkout machines and others adjust their self-checkout operations. 

Jacob shared this with us: 

What CVS (and Wawa) hilariously do is make the robot ask you more questions than even the humans at Kmart used to. Or, in CVS’s case, ask you to ask an employee to type a code so that you can type in your own birthdate to buy Tylenol.

The CVS, the first retail tenant for 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/the Death Star, opened in late 2015. 

Thursday's parting shots

And several readers have noted this — basically like why — on Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place...

On the Job: Talking with playwright Max Wolf Friedlich at the Connelly Theater

Photos and text by Stacie Joy

Updated 2/28: The play has been extended through March 23.

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The doors at the Connelly Theater, 220 E. Fourth St.,  are locked when I arrive to meet playwright Max Wolf Friedlich.

After a "Hey, I'm here!" text, he pops out of the venue with a smile, clutching a can of grapefruit Spindrift.

We take a brief tour of the site here between Avenue A and Avenue B before the scheduled 2 p.m. matinee of his well-reviewed play "Job," a psychological thriller about an employee at an unnamed big tech company who has been placed on leave after becoming the subject of a viral video. 

The play, starring Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon, enjoyed a buzzy five-week engagement last fall at the Soho Playhouse. Positive word-of-mouth —and reviews — have followed the production here for this six-plus week run. (When I leave at 1:30 p.m., there is already a sizable line on this rainy afternoon.)

We leave details of the play and its plot aside and talk about keeping theater affordable and accessible (there is a weekend matinee with gentler pricing) and the neighborhood and his connection to it. 

"I grew up doing theater in the East Village — at the Kraine, NY Theater Workshop, Bowery Poetry Club, Under St. Marks," he says. "I went to high school in the East Village, and many of my best friends lived here. It's my favorite neighborhood in New York. Somehow, despite all the changing demographics, it still feels like a real neighborhood — a real community."

He continues: "Being able to eat Casa Adela or Katz's on show days? Doesn't get much better. The Connelly is gorgeous, and Josh [Luxenberg, director and general manager] and his team have been so accommodating and attentive. Our whole team truly loves being on East Fourth."

"Job" is scheduled through March 3; tickets can be purchased here. 

Happy 25th anniversary to Lavagna!

Lavagna, the unassuming and quintessential East Village restaurant, is celebrating 25 years in business this week at 545 E. Fifth St., just west of Avenue B. 

The restaurant, which serves traditional Italian trattoria fare, opened on Feb. 1, 1999. 

Congrats to Yorgos, Rob and everyone in the front and back of the house at Lavagna. 

Open daily from 5-10 p.m., with a 1 p.m. start on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Image via Instagram

1 St. Mark's Place enters its blue phase

Whenever we post something about the 22-story building at 360 Bowery, people inevitably ask about the other new office project four blocks to the north. 

So here's a look at the 9-story office building on the NE corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place (we've seen alternative addresses for 1 St. Mark's Place and 3 St. Mark's Place). 

Currently, the east-facing wall is covered in some sort of blue construction materials...

... the color reminded us a bit of a former heralded (and long-gutted) building at 19-23 St. Mark's Place...

Per its rendering, 1 St. Mark's Place has a July 2024 completion date. 

More back story here.

6 posts from January

A mini month in review... (with a photo at Gizmo by Stacie Joy) 

• Reports: Man slashed after asking man to stop urinating on car along 14th Street at 1st Avenue (Jan. 23) 

• Why we may have seen the last of longtime East Village bar Lucy's (Jan. 22)

• The Veselka documentary, narrated by David Duchovny, opens at the Village East on Feb. 23 (Jan. 19) 

• Observations on the growing humanitarian crisis with asylum seekers in the East Village (Jan. 16) 

• Documenting the demolition of Middle Collegiate Church (Jan. 8) 

• Longtime East Village sewing shop Gizmo will be relocating in early 2024 (Jan. 3)