Friday, January 11, 2013
To get you into the spirit of MulchFest, and maybe possibly depress you!
Farewell Noel by AE Kessel from 2007... scenes from the East Village and the MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park ... h/t EVG reader l.e.s.ter
And remember, MulchFest is this weekend!
Is an 11-story building in Avenue C and East 14th Street's future?
Our Mystery Building Tour continues... on Wednesday, we looked at the activity happening at the long dormant 6 Avenue B ... today, we turn our attention to the corner of Avenue C and East 14th Street...
The R&S Strauss auto parts store here closed in the spring of 2009. And nothing has happened with the building since then (save the addition of more graffiti...)
According to the Massey Knakal Web site, the building was sold in January 2009 for $12.3 million. As the site noted: "The lot measures 114’9” x 88’and has a total buildable square footage of approximately 36,125 sq. ft. for residential use or 68,262 sq. ft. for a community facility, which will likely be the ultimate use of the property."
Turns out the buyer was Arun Bhatia, who currently has plans in place for a dorm at the former 35 Cooper Square. And the developer filed plans for a new 11-story building here on Dec. 23, 2009, per DOB records. The City disapproved the plans later in 2010. They are apparently still pending.
We've heard nothing of these plans the past two-plus years. And, perhaps, this isn't the best time to be building an 11-story residential building here. After all, this intersection suffered the worst flooding in the neighborhood the night of Superstorm Sandy.
[Photo by Jane Israelson Rubin via Facebook]
On that topic, we've asked several people who live nearby if they've seen anyone in this building following Sandy. No one has. So is there, say, 10 feet of water in the basement here?
Regardless, this is another corner ripe for development. As Jeremiah Moss wrote about R&S back in May 2008, this corner represents "an opening for the overall Meatpacking effect that is rippling up and down this main artery to reach deep into the East Village. The site has 'flagship opportunity' written all over it."
Some day, for sure.
The R&S Strauss auto parts store here closed in the spring of 2009. And nothing has happened with the building since then (save the addition of more graffiti...)
According to the Massey Knakal Web site, the building was sold in January 2009 for $12.3 million. As the site noted: "The lot measures 114’9” x 88’and has a total buildable square footage of approximately 36,125 sq. ft. for residential use or 68,262 sq. ft. for a community facility, which will likely be the ultimate use of the property."
Turns out the buyer was Arun Bhatia, who currently has plans in place for a dorm at the former 35 Cooper Square. And the developer filed plans for a new 11-story building here on Dec. 23, 2009, per DOB records. The City disapproved the plans later in 2010. They are apparently still pending.
We've heard nothing of these plans the past two-plus years. And, perhaps, this isn't the best time to be building an 11-story residential building here. After all, this intersection suffered the worst flooding in the neighborhood the night of Superstorm Sandy.
On that topic, we've asked several people who live nearby if they've seen anyone in this building following Sandy. No one has. So is there, say, 10 feet of water in the basement here?
Regardless, this is another corner ripe for development. As Jeremiah Moss wrote about R&S back in May 2008, this corner represents "an opening for the overall Meatpacking effect that is rippling up and down this main artery to reach deep into the East Village. The site has 'flagship opportunity' written all over it."
Some day, for sure.
Duane Readed! Time runs out on former First Avenue bank clock
On Monday, we had the post titled: Here's your new Duane Reade signage on First Avenue; plus — will they keep the clock?
That iconic clock here on First Avenue just north of East 14th Street has been providing the time for generations of New Yorkers dating back to 1786, and...
OK. That's not true. I did like the clock though. The building was (is!) really awful, though, with an out-of-place suburban look... Always surprised that no one came along and built 20 stories of condo on top...
... but I liked the clock! (it was actually 10:12 when I took this photo a few years ago...)
Anyway! By now you have likely guessed correctly that the clock is gone... as this photo from EVG reader Joe shows...
Now, for generations, we will only know that it's Duane Reade time. Again.
h/t to Pinch for mentioning that the clock was gone in the comments last night...
That iconic clock here on First Avenue just north of East 14th Street has been providing the time for generations of New Yorkers dating back to 1786, and...
OK. That's not true. I did like the clock though. The building was (is!) really awful, though, with an out-of-place suburban look... Always surprised that no one came along and built 20 stories of condo on top...
... but I liked the clock! (it was actually 10:12 when I took this photo a few years ago...)
Anyway! By now you have likely guessed correctly that the clock is gone... as this photo from EVG reader Joe shows...
Now, for generations, we will only know that it's Duane Reade time. Again.
h/t to Pinch for mentioning that the clock was gone in the comments last night...
Chips ahoy in Tompkins Square Park this weekend
Sure, you could toss your tree in front of your building with the ornaments and stuff still on it...
[EVG reader Corina]
... or you could take it out to get drunk, then abandon it in a grocery cart on East 13th Street...
[Via THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.]
... or you can drag it over to Tompkins Square Park for the annual MulchFest, holiday days of obligation in the EVG household...
The trees continue to pile up in the middle of the Park...
[Bobby Williams]
We've also spotted someone trying to mulch fake cottony snow ... or, perhaps, hide the beard evidence from SantaCon...
Yes, that fake cottony snow...
The MulchFest is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday, and we'll have 38 more posts on it before the weekend is over...
Previously.
... or you could take it out to get drunk, then abandon it in a grocery cart on East 13th Street...
... or you can drag it over to Tompkins Square Park for the annual MulchFest, holiday days of obligation in the EVG household...
The trees continue to pile up in the middle of the Park...
We've also spotted someone trying to mulch fake cottony snow ... or, perhaps, hide the beard evidence from SantaCon...
Yes, that fake cottony snow...
The MulchFest is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday, and we'll have 38 more posts on it before the weekend is over...
Previously.
Winter Friday Flashback: Last day for Love Saves the Day is Sunday
On Fridays this winter, and probably spring and summer ... we'll post one of the 16,000-plus EVG, uh, posts from yesteryear, like this one from Jan. 13, 2009 ...
-----
On Dec. 2, Jeremiah was first to report that Loves Saves the Day will shutter its iconic corner store on Seventh Street and Second Avenue. A sign on their storefront confirms the store's last day.
Meanwhile, what will become of the pay phones on the south side of the store? No way will Duane Reade keep them once they open their newest location here...(And yes -- I will burn in Hell for writing that...)
-----
On Dec. 2, Jeremiah was first to report that Loves Saves the Day will shutter its iconic corner store on Seventh Street and Second Avenue. A sign on their storefront confirms the store's last day.
Meanwhile, what will become of the pay phones on the south side of the store? No way will Duane Reade keep them once they open their newest location here...(And yes -- I will burn in Hell for writing that...)
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Rumors: Is Ben Shaoul selling his East Village properties?
One tipster said that the sale was a done deal. Another source said that some behind-the-scenes employees in Shaoul's empire have openly been telling residents about the sale. No official word on the buyer just yet.
Shaoul's current East Village projects include the addition of the much-maligned 7-Eleven at 170 Avenue A as well as the residential conversion of the former Cabrini Center on East Fifth Street. It is not believed that these two properties are/were part of the deal. Ditto for his pool-topped A Building on East 13th Street.
Back in May, Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate Group, put his buildings at the recently renovated 118-122 E. Fourth St. on the market for $25 million. According to public records, 118 East 4th LLC bought the properties in November 2010 for $11.5 million. (The price is now down to $23.5 million.)
Here's a passage from a lengthy feature on Shaoul from The New York Times last July (the article includes quotes from EV Grieve):
Mr. Shaoul made his inauspicious East Village debut in 2006, the same year the 21-story Cooper Square Hotel broke ground and the legendary rock club CBGB closed.
In March of that year, he bought out members of an artists’ squat on St. Marks Place in order to turn the building into rental apartments. A neighborhood photographer snapped Mr. Shaoul, accompanied by sledgehammer- and crowbar-wielding construction workers, as he confronted some of the squatters. At some point the police were called in; the photographs soon circulated around the neighborhood.
The episode led the real estate blog Curbed to dub Mr. Shaoul “Sledgehammer Shaoul” and — although he was not actually holding a sledgehammer in any of the photos — the name and image have stuck. His reputation was reinforced as he renovated more buildings: rent-stabilized tenants in his buildings reported threats of eviction, and he racked up Department of Housing Preservation and Development complaints and violations for the interruption of heat and hot water, blocked fire escapes, broken locks and other issues related to construction and maintenance.
Shaoul's expanding portfolio reportedly includes properties in TriBeCa, the West Village, Harlem, the Financial District and on the Lower East Side and Upper East Side.
Much more as details become available.
What's going on at the Middle Collegiate Church building on East Seventh Street?
Late last year (Dec. 19 to be exact!), you may have noticed the plywood arrive outside the Middle Collegiate Church building on East Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... Since then, workers have been busy gutting the space — a sign that always makes a few people nervous. Like, hey — it's becoming a condo or a hotel or an artisanal condiment shop.
Turns out it's nothing so sinister, in case you haven't heard.
"Our office space is being renovated, so that the building will be fully accessible to the people of the East Village and allowing us to better fulfill our goal of being a place that welcomes everyone," Kate Tull, a technical administrator with Middle Collegiate, told us via email.
The Church website has some construction FAQs here.
The price of a 99-cent pizzeria is now just $100,000
A tree grows on Astor Place
EVG contributor James Maher shared this photo with us... a shot of a lonely-looking Chase branch on Astor Place. Upon closer inspection, you can make out a little life...
Per James: "Thought it showed this interesting spark of life and human presence within the soulless empty bank."
Boulton and Watt is open on Avenue A
Boulton & Watt, the new bar-restaurant concept from the people behind Ella and the Blind Barber, officially opened this week at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space.
BlackBook described the space this way:
[T]he prime spot has a steampunk twist with salvaged windows, an antique steam engine used to power the restaurants fan system, and a spattering of repurposed furniture.
And the food? Chef David Rotter said it was "a revised take on rustic American comfort food." Zagat points out that Rotter "pays homage to [the industrial revolution] with twists on throwback dishes such as Scotch egg with béarnaise; and short rib and bone marrow toast in bordelaise. There’s also a 'pickling station' featuring an array of fruits and veggies, including figs, pineapple, radish, Brussels sprouts and beets."
We've heard from people that the food is good, though "pickling station" might make parody fodder for a TV show that has a poster near the restaurant...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors about the new name for the former Nice Guy Eddie's space
Last night at Nice Guy Eddie's
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
[Updated] Street fight erupts at Raphael Ward's memorial service on Second Avenue this afternoon
There was a memorial service this afternoon for Raphael Ward, the 16-year-old gunned down for his jacket last Friday night on the Lower East Side.
Witnesses described a wild scene after a fight among students apparently broke out outside the Provenzano Lanza Funeral Home on Second Avenue between East Third Street and East Second Street around 3 p.m.
These pictures by Event Photos NYC show panicked students fleeing the scene, heading south toward Houston...
Bobby Williams was also in the vicinity and took these photos...
He reports that a large contingent of NYPD officers quickly arrived and restored order... no word on any arrests...
Police are looking to question four "persons of interest" about the murder. His funeral will take place at Our Lady of Sorrows Church on Pitt Street tomorrow morning, according to the Lo-Down.
More details on today's altercation as they become available...
[Courtesy of Event Photos NYC]
Updated 1-10:
The Lo-Down has more on the incident:
Updated 1-10:
The Post reports that the NYPD arrested a 16 year old for his alleged role in the shooting last Friday night.
Witnesses described a wild scene after a fight among students apparently broke out outside the Provenzano Lanza Funeral Home on Second Avenue between East Third Street and East Second Street around 3 p.m.
These pictures by Event Photos NYC show panicked students fleeing the scene, heading south toward Houston...
Bobby Williams was also in the vicinity and took these photos...
He reports that a large contingent of NYPD officers quickly arrived and restored order... no word on any arrests...
Police are looking to question four "persons of interest" about the murder. His funeral will take place at Our Lady of Sorrows Church on Pitt Street tomorrow morning, according to the Lo-Down.
More details on today's altercation as they become available...
Updated 1-10:
The Lo-Down has more on the incident:
A friend of The Lo-Down witnessed the confrontation, telling us that at one point a teen was being beaten with a large chain and a frying pan. Another source said at least one fight began inside the funeral home. Cops were forced to shut down traffic on 2nd Avenue to deal with the situation.
Updated 1-10:
The Post reports that the NYPD arrested a 16 year old for his alleged role in the shooting last Friday night.
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition
Get your SPURA RFP! (The Lo-Down)
An illegal backyard dining area at Mission Chinese on Orchard? (BoweryBoogie)
Archival shots of Union Square (Curbed)
Recalling Luc Sante's "My Lost City" (Essay Daily ... h/t Flaming Pablum)
Revisiting a great album, "Mink Deville" (Clash Magazine)
Suzie's Chinese restaurant on Bleecker closes after 39 years (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
... and a photo while crossing First Avenue at St. Mark's this morning...
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