Become a member of the 6BC Botanical Garden; 1st orientation is Saturday

[Photos via 6BC Botanical Garden]

Via the EVG inbox... from the 6BC Botanical Garden on Sixth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C...

Hello, fellow gardeners! It's that time again! 6BC is seeking responsible persons interested in making a commitment to our community garden. Get out in the sunshine, meet your neighbors,and help us keep this lovely space green and growing for our community. And maybe make a new friend or two!

As a member of 6BC Garden, you will have year-round access to the garden, and invitations to members-only events,
Most importantly, you will be helping to maintain a priceless, serene, green space for our neighborhood and for yourself. So you know nothing about gardening? No problem! We all learn together. You don't even have to garden — there are other ways to help out.

Orientation Dates:
Saturday, April 1
Sunday, April 9
Sunday, April 23
Saturday, April 29
Sunday, May 7
Saturday, May 20

All orientations start at 11 a.m.

Find more details here.

Last year, 6BC received the Achievement in Landscape Design in the first GreenThumb Gardeners Recognition Awards ...topping 600 other city gardens.

The sign at the garden noting this distinction was recently enhanced...

Noted

An EVG reader shared these photos from Astor Place this morning... where a crew and cast were filming a commercial for the Tribeca Film Festival...



There were rumors that this was a new, quick-serve food concept...

Out east

Thanks to EVG reader Alex L. for today's sunrise photo from East River Park...

Report: Raphael Toledano files for Chapter 11; $145 million deal for EV portfolio is off the table

On Tuesday, an affiliate of Raphael Toledano's Brookhill Properties filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on a 15-building East Village portfolio, The Real Deal reports.

Meanwhile, the deal to sell the portfolio to Joseph Sutton, son of retail mogul Jeff Sutton, for some $145 million is also off.

All this has transpired about one month after Madison Realty Capital filed to foreclose on the package of multifamily walk-ups acquired by Toledano in 2015 from the Tabak family. (Toledano purchased 28 buildings in two separate portfolios from the Tabak family for a total of $140 million.)

Per The Real Deal:

Now that the deal with Sutton is no longer happening, Toledano is looking for other suitors, sources said.

The bankruptcy filing, submitted by Brookhill-controlled entity East Village Properties LLC, would buy Toledano more time to sell the buildings and avoid foreclosure.

Toledano and Sutton declined to comment. Sources familiar with the deal said that Sutton did not want to be associated with a deal tainted with a bankruptcy filing.

According to The Real Deal, the buildings in this portfolio are: 27 St. Mark's Place, 66 E. 7th St., 514 E. 12th St., 223 E. 5th St., 229 E. 5th St., 231 E. 5th St., 233 E. 5th St., 235 E. 5th St., 228 E. 6th St., 253 E. 10th St., 323-325 E. 12th St., 327 E. 12th St., 329 E. 12th St., 334 E. 9th St. and 510 E. 12th St.

The Brookhill Properties website previously showed that the company owned 21 buildings in the East Village.

As of last evening, the Brookhill Properties website was no longer online...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Foreclosure notice arrives on Raphael Toledano-owned building on 12th Street

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

Cleaning up 444 E. 13th St.

Report: State investigating East Village landlord Raphael Toledano

Health Department to inspect Raphael Toledano's East Village properties for toxic levels of lead dust

Image via the Brookhill website

Village Pourhouse is closing on 3rd Avenue; E.Vil is coming soon

Word is circulating that Village Pourhouse, the pub-crawling hosting hotspot, is closing on Monday. A tipster told us that management informed the staff last night.

However, the sports bar, which opened in the summer of 2006 on Third Avenue at East 11th Street, shouldn't be empty for too long.

The teaser site for E.Vil, the incoming rock club reportedly inspired by CBGB and Max's Kansas City, lists 64 Third Ave. — the current home of Village Pourhouse — as its address...



This new venture via, among other partners, club owner Richie Akiva, is "where you go to hear Aerosmith, the Clash, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, ’80s/’90s rock, the Cult," one source told Page Six.

E.Vil is expected to open on April 17, according to their Instagram account. They were not listed on the April CB3-SLA committee docket released yesterday for a new liquor license.

Previously on EV Grieve:
E.Vil is coming to the East Village (31 comments)

City ID cards available through April 13 at former St. Mark's Bookshop on 3rd Avenue

31 Third Ave. at Stuyvesant Street has been empty ever since St. Mark's Bookshop moved out in June 2014. There have been a few art shows here, which makes sense given that Cooper Union owns the building.

Starting tomorrow, though, the space will be an IDNYC center through April 13...





Here's more about the program:

New York City residents are now able to sign up for IDNYC – a government-issued identification card that is available to all City residents age 14 and older. Immigration status does not matter. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this initiative in his State of the City address in January 2014 and less than one year later proudly launched the largest municipal identification card program in the nation.

Find more details on how to sign up here.

No. 31 was home to the St. Mark's Bookshop for 22 years.

Do you have an apartment with an open floor plan for 'Broad City' to use?

Slum Goddess shares this flyer ... Crews are out scouting locations in the East Village for season 4 of "Broad City."

"We're looking for an apartment to film in for 1 day. The shoot is tentatively scheduled to take place sometime between April 3 and April 14. The apartment should be two bedrooms and up with an open floor plan ... The idea it is supposed to play as a dorm room.

Today in free shit on 7th Street

FYI — someone has already nabbed the free lunch sign... photo by Derek Berg

Spiky structures complete outside Cooper Union

We've been noting the spiky structures under construction outside Cooper Union. Yesterday, workers finished erecting representations of John Hejduk's pair of architectural structures, "the House of the Suicide" and "the House of the Mother of the Suicide," that honor the Czech dissident Jan Palach.

Hejduk, a Cooper Union graduate, was the founding dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union.

Known as the Jan Palach Memorial, which was permanently installed in Prague in 2016, this is the first public exhibition (via Cooper Union and the Department of Transportation) for the recently revamped Cooper Square plaza.

Curbed has more today about the project.

To install the outdoor sculptures ... Cooper Union assembled a team of current students and alumni. Hejduk was a big believer in the “social contract” of architecture, so the school wanted to assemble his work in that spirit.

Over two weeks the Cooper Union team, using power tools and socket wrenches, assembled 400 pieces into both sculptures. They used a wooden yoke to carry each of the 98 spikes onto the roof of each structure, which is 12 feet off the ground. The spikes — which weight about 100 pounds a piece —then project another 12 feet into the air. The framing of both sculptures is made of cedar timber, while the spikes are made out of sheet metal welded together.

This is part of a month-long exhibit featuring Hejduk's work that starts today. The sculptures will remain through June 11.

Updated:

Here are some photos from later today via Vinny & O...







Previously on EV Grieve:
Celebrating the work of John Hejduk at Cooper Union

Today's Avenue A milling report

Workers were expected to mill Avenue A up to 13th Street last evening and overnight ... apparently the rain delayed the start of the milling festivities... which might explain why they just got to Sixth Street ...



Perhaps there will be more milling tonight. Also! Signs on St. Mark's Place note that milling will take place from Third Avenue to Avenue A tonight.

The morning view

Photos of today's selective sunrise by Bobby Williams...

D.L. Cerney returning to the East Village

[Photo by Steven]

In the past two summers, the D.L. Cerney boutique returned to the East Village, selling its hand-made, vintage-style clothes in a pop-up space on Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Now, however, it appears that D.L. Cerney is making the Ninth Street stay permanent. A D.L. Cerney "open soon" sign arrived at 324 E. Ninth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

D.L. Cerney closed up shop on Seventh Street at the end of 2012 after 28 years in business. At the time, co-owner Linda St. John told Jeremiah Moss that the closure wasn't about rent, just about time. She wanted to leave the city for awhile and focus on her art and writing.

There isn't any word on an opening date. The space was previously home to Dusty Buttons, which closed last month.