According to the city, the renovations will last two years, after which the former squatters will be allowed to return and buy their units at a low, insider’s price.
Meanwhile, a private developer, BFC Partners, led by principal Donald Capoccia, will rehab the two buildings as affordable housing, in return for which BFC will get development rights in the form of an “inclusionary housing” bonus — or F.A.R. (floor area ratio) — usable to build market-rate housing elsewhere nearby.
The city is temporarily offering the former squatters units in Stuyvesant Town, for which they would pay a discounted rent — not to exceed 30 percent of 30 percent of area median income. The developer will cover the balance of the rent.
Every morning 7 days a week at 7 am there are the main characters: The Ball Peen Hammer Dude panging on random shit, The Dude with a Giant Vibrator who's just vibrating the shit out of every building around us, The Door Knocker who is knocking on the old ass doors that are still in there for some reason, The Guy banging metal trash-can lids from the 1980s... They're also Peeping Toms. Creeeeeeepy!!
I could go on for hours, because I've already reported these assholes to 311 numerous times to no avail. They have disturbed us on not only Saturdays, but FRIGGING Sundays! They need to stop. The building looks worse than it did before.
We are creating an experiential men’s boutique featuring luxury men’s clothing, custom clothing, bespoke jeans, hand made shoes and organic men’s grooming products (hangover recovery kits, post flight rejuvenation kits). Everything is made by artisan workshops in Italy, Peru and here in New York. The space is more theatre than traditional retail.
"Like the layers of Dante's purgatory, each song or chapter represents a battle that Florence traversed ... that embodied each song or story," he said.
In 1917, after 64 years of operation, it was announced that the St. Denis would be closing its doors to make way for a loft building. The reason for its demise was the surrounding neighborhood’s change in character and the manager’s inability to keep up with modern hotel-keeping ideas. In February 1920, the Renwick family finally sold the property, which had been in their family for 250 years, at auction.
“The changing of the St. Denis Hotel to an office building obliterates one of the oldest hotels in the city…The St. Denis Hotel was the fashionable headquarters half a century ago” said the New York Times. The hotel was converted into a modern store and office building and, during renovations, was stripped of its previous decorative front.
Name: Maria, who is a little camera shy, and Brisco
Occupation: Retired, Property manager
Location: 3rd Street and 1st Avenue
Time: 3:30 p.m. on May 2
I moved here in 2001. Originally I’m from the Murray Hill area. It’s called Kips Bay now. That area has also changed. It was not as infested with drugs as it is down here. It was predominantly an Irish-Italian neighborhood. Not many Hispanics like myself, but it was a community, with social clubs.
It was a great neighborhood – doors were left open, and people watched over one another. It was very friendly and there were a lot of families. The Madison Square Boys Club was up there on 29th Street between First and Second avenues. It’s now a charter school. There was also a Girl’s Club on the 30th Street side – both of them are gone. It’s too bad. That was a great thing to have. I was a member of the Girl’s Club and we used to go back and forth just to use the pool. They also used to have dances in there.
It was also a tenement-building area, and now they have these high rises going up. It’s really taking over. I think it was around the 2000s, maybe a little earlier than that. The buildings started to change, and now mores o than ever. It’s incredible. I was one of the original tenants there of a Mitchell-Lama building and it was pretty affordable. Then they went to market rent. It’s now called Kips Bay [Court]. Back in the day when I was there, I was paying $800 and change. When I started there, I was there for almost 25-30 years, and the rent was $300-something for a one bedroom with a terrace.
There’s a different kind of feel in Kips Bay compared to down here. I feel like you need to stretch up with the shoulders as you go uptown. Down here it’s a whole different ballgame. It’s so much fun. When I moved here my shoulders went down – more relaxed. It’s more diversified – you find blacks, Hispanics, whites, and you find some yuppies down here too, but it’s cool. Everybody’s in the mix down here. It feels like everybody’s pretty cool around one another.
I just retired – it’ll be one year. I was a property manager for a real-estate company on the Upper West Side. There were two buildings that I managed. They were hotels at one time. Ethically a lot of the stuff that was going on in these high-rise buildings… rent stabilized people were being pushed out. That sucked. Ethically, there was a lot of stuff that I really didn’t approve of… but I worked for a big company. It was also male oriented.
I was there for a good 15 years, but it was tough. I started out as a security guard. I had hit my bottom and couldn’t get work. I lost my job in the financial industry – I was an over-the-counter trader. It was a big change.
Oh man, I started down there in the 1980s. There were no computers really. I started out there, went through the rock 'n' roll stuff and alcohol. To get back to work. I left for California, but I didn’t make it there because I was still running from whatever. So I started as a security guard and then I wound up assisting the managing office, then I wound up being the assistant manager, and then I wound up being a manager, and then the story goes on. But it was cool. I felt like… you put the footwork in and then you turn your life around. I thought I was tough, but I’m really a mush.
I do photography on the side now. I just got back from South Africa. I did some safari work there and took like 1,700 pictures and my buddy took 2,000. I was there for six weeks and then I went into the mountains for a month to a silent retreat, meditating. It was hard coming back. Integrating wasn’t easy, but it’s good for the soul.
