A moment with Candy the Gem Spa cat this morning

Is that a busted look?





Photos by Derek Berg

Candy is on Facebook too.

Out and About in the East Village

In this ongoing feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village or Lower East Side.



By James Maher

Name: Grace Kang
Occupation: Owner, Pink Olive, 9th Street between 1st and A
Photo Location: 8th Street
Date: Wednesday, June 21

I was born in Korea and we emigrated when I was 7 to Las Vegas. We later moved to California, then my father got a job for the City of New York. So we moved to New Jersey when I was in 7th grade. I grew up there and New York was the place where I came to start my adult life.

I was always in retail. I was a buyer for Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys New York. I was in the fashion space, which was competitive and fast-paced. I always said that if you can survive fashion in New York, you can survive anything.

The East Village has a very special place in my heart since it was [the location of] the first Pink Olive store. The East Village is where I feel like I grew up and found my home when we moved to the city. It was one of those places where I just felt comfortable. The city can be very overwhelming for a lot of people and the East Village is very neighborhoody.

I remember the East Village being a place where I could discover new things, whether it would be new inspirations or ideas. Especially Ninth Street, when it was starting to come into its own. Usually side streets are not the best location for commercial spots, it’s usually all about the avenues, but there was something about Ninth Street that felt like there was something happening. I wanted to be part of that, so when I found the space it was kind of a no-brainer to open my first shop. That was 2007. I just celebrated 10 years. We’re a whimsical gift and lifestyle boutique. We carry an eclectic mix of a lot of creative gifting ideas for little ones to loved ones.

I always thought I would open up a clothing store because that was my background, but looking back, I think I didn’t because that space is not only competitive, which I don’t mind, but it was also a different world back then from where it is now. To be honest, I’m not sure I would have survived that world, because it’s even hard for the big companies, not to mention the little ones. I managed to luck out with the landlords that I ended up meeting. That’s half the battle with any retail business.

There are still some good landlords out there, and when you find one of them, you have to jump on [the opportunity]. I’ve heard the opposite side of that — so many scenarios. I have friends with retail businesses and heard stories of going to court with landlords or getting booted out. It happened on Ninth Street near us. All of those businesses had to leave when Icon bought the building [at 441-445 E. Ninth St.]. It’s sad when that happens. Those were my neighbors, my friends — they really completed that Ninth Street experience.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Construction watch: Thirteen East + West

Over on 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, two, 6-floor condos called Thirteen East + West are in progress in space that housed single-level garages.

The top photo shows the status of what is the East building (the former No. 442) ... apparently this one received all the attention first from workers. The West (the former No. 436) building remains in the pit stages...





As we pointed out in previous posts, each building has six floor-through homes, all with private outdoor space. Pricing will start at $2.3 million; $3.4 million for the penthouses. The penthouses at each building will have their own private garages and roof decks. And like most East Village apartments, all units will be finished with white oak flooring, oversized windows and black lacquer Lualdi doors from Italy, and kitchens are fitted with Thermador- and Bosch-brand appliances.

Finally, a look at the final product via the rendering on the plywood...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Tracking the coming changes to East 13th Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue

A look at the new luxury condos coming soon to East 13th Street

Temporary art and future condos on East 13th Street

Demo time for East 13th Street garages that will yield to luxury condos

A look at the residences coming to Thirteen East + West on East 13th Street

Your chance for enjoying Summer Streets and Smellmapping Astor Place coming next month

[4th Avenue on July 1]

Yesterday, the city/Citi announced plans for the annual Summer Streets ... coming up on Aug. 5, Aug. 12 and Aug. 19.

Per the Summer Streets site:

Summer Streets is an annual celebration of New York City’s most valuable public space—our streets. On three consecutive Saturdays in August, nearly seven miles of NYC's streets are opened for people to play, run, walk and bike. Summer Streets provides space for healthy recreation and encourages New Yorkers to use more sustainable forms of transportation. In 2016, nearly 300,000 people took advantage of the open streets.

Summer Streets is modeled on other events from around the world including Ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia and the Paris Plage in France and has since inspired other such events around the world such as CicloRecreo Via and London's Regent Street Summer Streets.

Held between 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, Summer Streets extends from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, along Park Avenue and connecting streets, with easy access from all points in New York City, allowing participants to plan a trip as long or short as they wish. All activities at Summer Streets are free of charge, and designed for people of all ages and ability levels to share the streets respectfully.

As in previous years, the car-free, Street-Festival-Free zone includes Lafayette, Astor Place and Fourth Avenue.

There will be several activities at Astor Place:

To explore all of your senses, the Astor Place Rest Stop will for the first time feature The Citi Experience inviting the public to tap into all of their senses with a 360 degree Mt. Everest VR experience and a New York-centric mini golf course.

And!

Smellmapping Astor Place
DOT Art and the Village Alliance have partnered with designer Kate McLean to produce a Smellmap of the Astor Place neighborhood. Three smellwalks were hosted over the past few months with local residents and stakeholders to gather smell data/information. Participants were asked to explore the environment strictly through their sense of smell by smell catching (receiving smell info), smell hunting (searching for smell info) and lastly free smelling (a mini smell research project). Mclean has collected all the smell data and visualized the findings as a colorful smellmap. McLean will be on-site to lead two walks at 9 am and 11 am to continue building on this research and invites participants to incorporate their findings into a large-scale smellmap available on-site.

Take the #smelltour ( not kidding) at #SummerStreets 2017. Yes, dog poop and garbage is in the list #1010WINS pic.twitter.com/tYxVFxAkww

— Juliet Papa (@winsjuliet) July 11, 2017

Head over to the Summer Streets site for more details.

Looking at the new-look 29 Second Ave.

[The old-look No. 29]

You may have noticed that 29 Second Ave. between First Street and Second Street has a new look... outside...



... and inside as well.

The three-bedroom residence above the (two-floor) retail space recently arrived on the market via CitiHabitat:

Welcome to 29 Second Avenue, a building recreated with newly renovated interiors. The residences at 29 Second Avenue boast all of the essentials of new construction: central air conditioning and heating, washer and dryer in the unit, custom kitchens with luxury appliances, white shaker cabinetry, quartz counter tops and backsplashes, and porcelain tile-clad bathrooms with custom vanities and glass-enclosed showers. The apartment features extra wide white oak plank floors throughout, solid core wood doors with chrome hardware, LED dimmable lighting with smart technology capabilities, USB electrical outlets, an HD video intercom, exposed brick and ample closet space.

The custom Chef’s Kitchen features a coordinated LG stainless steel appliance package, complete with dishwasher, built-in microwave with vented hood, and garbage disposal. The countertops and backsplash are Calacatta Quartz with a luxurious book matched waterfall enhancing the shaker style solid wood cabinetry with soft closing hardware. The vast living space is perfect for home entertaining with a custom built-in bar, complete with a wine chiller and an ice maker.

The apartment includes three full bathrooms with radiant heated flooring, imported Italian tile, linear shower drains, rain shower with additional hand shower on slide bar, full glass enclosures, quartz counter tops with fully wrapped waterfall over custom vanities, and recessed medicine cabinets.

The asking rent is now $11,995 after a $1,505 price reduction earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the retail space has been asking $23,000-plus change ... the previous tenant here, The Cock, moved a few blocks to the north in December 2015.

Earlier this year, Highpoint Property Group purchased the building for $4.55 million from Jared Kushner's Westminster Management, according to public records.

Tuesday's parting shot

In the rain late this afternoon on Avenue B and Ninth Street...

Photo by Bobby Williams

Report: Man sentenced to 40 years in 2011 shooting death of teen outside Campos Plaza

Hockeem Smith, who gunned down a teen outside the Campos Plaza Housing Complex on 12th Street near Avenue C in October 2011, has reportedly been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Smith, who was 24 in 2011, received a 25-year sentence for manslaughter and an additional 15 years for criminal possession of a weapon, as Town & Village reported.

The victim, 18-year-old Donovan “Keith” Salgado (pictured), was a senior at Washington Irving High School who lived on Ninth Street, a block away from Smith.

The Lo-Down reported at the time that Salgado's mother was the leader of an anti-violence youth group. The shooting reportedly occurred following a game of late-night dice. Smith attempted to rob Salgado prior to the shooting, per DNAinfo.

[Photo via the Daily News]

An outpost of the Ainsworth vying for former Pourhouse space; E.Vil is not coming

The owners of the Ainsworth, an upscale sports bar with multiple NYC locations, is vying for the former Village Pourhouse space on Third Avenue at 11th Street.

Team Ainsworth (Matthew Shendell is the principal owner) will appear before CB3's SLA committee next Monday night.



According to the questionnaire on file at the CB3 website, the Ainsworth East Village is seeking hours of 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday to Sunday.

The Ainsworth is also looking to license the sidewalk for outdoor seating. The application shows seven tables seating 14 people for the outside. (The Village Pourhouse also had a license for the sidewalk.)

And now, you may be wondering what happened to E.Vil, a rock-inspired bar expected to open here at 64 Third Ave. "where you go to hear Aerosmith, the Clash, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, ’80s/’90s rock, the Cult," according to Page Six back on March 20.

E.Vil's Instagram once noted an April 17 opening date. The account, mostly iconic photos of everyone from David Bowie to Johnny Thunders to the Sex Pistols, hasn't been updated since early April. At one point, the account showed a June 1 opening date ...





Perhaps E.Vil will turn up elsewhere. In May, someone spray painted E.Vil on the side of the former Pourhouse...



The legend lives on.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Village Pourhouse still looks like the Village Pourhouse outside, but E.Vil is on the way

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

E.Vil is coming to the East Village

A few more details on the end of Webster Hall in its current format

The current owners of Webster Hall offered more details about the closure of the club in a Facebook post early yesterday via Gerard McNamee Jr., director of operations...

Sad but true, the legendary and world-famous Webster Hall has been sold and will close as we know it for its final club night on Saturday August 5th, 2017, which just so happens to be my birthday, which is certainly somehow apropos. It will be closed for an undisclosed period of time for demo, reno and transition to corporate ownership under Barclays/AEG/Bowery Presents. I highly recommend that you all stop by before the end of this era to pay your respects to the Ballingers and the building for providing us with a lifetimes worth of memories.

The Ballinger family has owned and operated Webster Hall since 1989.

Anyway, so the last club night is Aug. 5. As we noted back in May, the last concert date was listed on Aug. 8 (Michelle Branch: The Hopeless Romantic Tour). A record release show with Marateck is now on the calendar on Aug. 9 in the Studio. And that's it.

After that, the new owners, Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents, will begin renovations at the landmarked building on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

An EVG reader was at the recent CB3-SLA committee meeting in which Spectrum Catering and Concessions was applying for a new liquor license. (The 25-year-old company provides concessions for a variety of venues and festivals nationwide. In NYC, they manage Terminal 5, the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Rough Trade and Brooklyn Steel.)

Per the reader:

No more club/late night parties.
No more Marlin Room.
Reducing capacity due to the addition of elevators.
Minimum closure of 18 to 24 months starting August 11th

DNAinfo has some background on the liquor license application here.

Finally, as noted last Friday, a group of filmmakers, who are also working at the venue, hope to make a documentary on Webster Hall's last month.

Webster Hall was built in 1886. Alex has a post here yesterday about when the venue was the Ritz.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The plan to document the last month of Webster Hall's existence

Speculation about Webster Hall's closing date

Raphael Toledano-owned East 6th Street building returns to the market for a few million more

The 6-story walk-up building at 332 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue is back on the sales market.

Here's part of the listing, via Cushman & Wakefield:

The entire building underwent a gut renovation in 2016 that included the build out of an expansive resident accessible rear deck space, upgraded common areas, and fully updated mechanicals. Current ownership also has approved plans for a restoration of the facade from Landmarks they are currently undergoing.

The apartments feature Chef's range kitchens, custom granite countertops, dishwashers, stackable washers/dryers, wide plank oak floors, and custom lighting. 8 of the units are 3-BRs and 4 are 2-BRs. Upon being renovated, the units were leased immediately at near market rents showing the high demand for apartments in the immediate vicinity. Furthermore, each unit has a gas boiler (tenants pay) reducing operating expenses in perpetuity. There is potential upside in the RS units along with adding an an addition using the 2,950 SF of air rights subject to Landmarks approval.

This is a great opportunity to acquire a low maintenance and high cash flowing multi-family asset in the heart of the East Village.

Asking price: $10.5 million.

In early 2016, presumably pre gut renovation, the building was seeking $8 million. At that time, of the 12 units, nine were empty and three were rent-stabilized.

Public records show that Raphael Toledano's Brookhill Properties bought the building in January 2016 for $4.5 million. (This was owned by the Tabak family, though not part of the larger portfolio they sold to Toledano.)

As previously reported, Madison Realty Capital has replaced the controversial landlord as the property manager of his remaining East Village buildings while a deal to transfer the ownership is worked out.

Here's what's coming to 222 1st Ave.

An outpost of the hearing-care company HearUSA is opening on the east side of First Avenue between 13th Street and 14th Street.

The space was previously a hair salon.

Tompkins Square Park sinkhole awaiting new pipe

On Saturday, workers began digging out the 4-week-old sinkhole at the Eighth Street/Avenue B entrance to Tompkins Square Park.

A worker said that he was making way for the plumbers to fix the vitrified clay pipe (guessing!) installed during the Cleveland administration that broke.

Unfortunately, the plumber apparently couldn't make it today. The hole remains uncovered, awaiting new pipe...





The good news is the trashcan that the sinkhole swallowed has been safely retrieved.