Report: Ex admits to murdering Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square

[Photo from March 2018]

Vincent Verdi, a former federal intelligence officer, pleaded guilty to murder in the 2nd degree yesterday for gunning down Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square as she arrived for work on Nov. 1, 2017.

As the Daily News reported last evening, Verdi told a judge he was remorseful for killing Lee.

"These words come of a heavy heart,” Verdi said in Manhattan Supreme Court. "My sorrow for what I did has no limit, and is also true of my regret for the pain and anguish I have caused to many, many people."

The terms of this deal will see Verdi, 63, serve at least 18 years for the murder.

Lee, who was 56 and a mother of two grown children, lived on the Upper East Side. She had just docked a Citi Bike when Verdi approached her and shot her twice. He then shot himself in the head.

According to previous reports in the Daily News, Verdi spent four months stalking and harassing Lee. Police had arrested him previously for stalking. She had an order of protection barring him from contacting her, which was in place the morning he killed her.

The DA's office originally charged him with murder, weapons possession, aggravated criminal contempt and stalking.

Lee was a longtime administrator at the nearby Grace Church School. She was remembered as a devoted mother and a friend to many.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Memorial for Elizabeth Lee on Cooper Square

Prepping the former P.C. Richard & Son for demolition on 14th Street

Workers started prepping the former P.C. Richard & Son two-story compound on 14th Street at Irving Place yesterday for demolition (thanks for the photo Pinch!) ... clearing the site for the eventual construction of the 22-story Union Square Tech Training Center (aka tech hub).

The project is being developed jointly by the city’s Economic Development Corp. and RAL. The Union Square Tech Training Center includes Civic Hall, which will offer digital skills for low-income residents, as well as market-rate retail, office space and a food hall.


[Image via Davis Brody Bond]

The hub, championed by Mayor de Blasio and initially announced in early 2017, passed through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process earlier in 2018, capped off by a unanimous City Council vote in August. A rezoning was required to build the the structure, which is larger than what current commercial zoning allows.

The 14th @ Irving website lists a grand opening in the fourth quarter of 2020, though that timeline is already slightly off schedule — construction was expected to start in the first quarter of this year.

The Village Preservation (GVSHP) recently called for a probe of the "sweetheart deal" that RAL Development Services, the developer of the tech hub, received here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Behold Civic Hall, the high-tech future of Union Square — and NYC

Speaking out against a 'Silicon Alley' in this neighborhood

P.C. Richard puts up the moving signs on 14th Street; more Tech Hub debate to come

Preservationists: City schedules next public hearing on tech hub without any public notice

City Council's lone public hearing on the 14th Street tech hub is tomorrow

City Council unanimously approves tech hub; some disappointment in lack of zoning protections

The conversation continues on the now-approved tech hub for 14th Street

Report: Preservationists want probe of the tech hub deal on 14th Street

Concern over new GreenThumb regulations for community gardens

Several community groups and gardens are holding a town hall meeting tomorrow to learn more about and discuss the new GreenThumb licensing agreement. Here's more info via the EVG inbox...

Our community gardens are under threat again. This time not from bulldozers, but from new rules under a GreenThumb licensing agreement that if the gardeners sign, will change the focus of community gardens forever.

LUNGS, the community garden coalition, MORUS and Time's Up! are holding a citywide town hall to discuss the license agreement.

This new license contains many regulations, restrictions and new obligations that will change how we operate. GreenThumb appears to be taking on the role of an enforcement agency rather than garden-friendly enablers. This is very disconcerting to gardeners who volunteer their time and spend their own money to maintain city property.

It took the City more then four months to put this license together. Gardeners should be allowed more than one month to evaluate a document we are being asked to sign.

The LUNGS website has a copy of the new agreement, with the changes highlighted here. Some garden members worry that sections of the new license might discourage gardens from hosting events and even planting trees or installing rainwater capture systems.

The meeting takes place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue at 10th Street.

Headless Widow signage arrives on 1st Avenue

Signage arrived yesterday for the new bar-restaurant coming to the northwest corner of First Avenue at Sixth Street — say hello to The Headless Widow...



CB3 OK'd a liquor license for the applicants, who have management experience at the now-closed Michael Jordan's The Steak House N.Y.C., in March.

The sample menu on file with the questionnaire shows a variety of pub-fare offerings — burgers, salads, sandwiches and main courses like the Headless Widow Fish and Chips.

According to the CB3 minutes from March, the Headless Widow will be open from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sundays through Wednesdays; until 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.

We don't know too much else about the establishment at the moment.

The corner space here was previously Umm Burger for 13 months.

Thanks to Vinny & O for the photos!

Thursday's parting shot

A scene from Sixth Street at Avenue A today via @Phandy_13 ... showing the Sidewalk Closed sign outside the now-closed Sidewalk Bar and Restaurant.

Report: Microsoft signs lease for gas-station replacing office building on Lafayette and Houston

[EVG photo from April]

Microsoft has reportedly signed a lease for most of the available space at 300 Lafayette, the incoming 7-floor office building at East Houston — the former site of a BP station (and Gaseteria before that) and the Irish pub Puck Fair.

In total, the building has 30,000 square feet of retail and 53,000 square feet of office space. According to the Post, Microsoft signed a lease for nearly 70,000 square feet. No official word on what Microsoft plans to do with all the space. Last fall, Crain's reported that they were planning a retail presence here.

The building has a terracotta façade; the office floors boast private terraces and floor-to-ceiling windows. Microsoft apparently liked the Windows here.

Developed by Related and LargaVista Companies, the lobby is apparently paying homage to the property's gas-station past, as seen in this rendering...

The former Grassroots Tavern space on St. Mark's Place is on the market

In recent weeks various tipsters have told us that the former Grassroots Tavern at 20 St. Mark's Place was now available for rent.

As proof, there's an updated retail listing for the space between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...



The asking rent is available upon request, per the listing.

This also must mean that the new bar slated for the old Grassroots spot isn't moving forward. For the past 18-plus months, Bob Precious had been planning on opening a bar in this semi-subterranean space with a working title of Subterranean.

Precious launched the mini chain of Irish-style pubs called the Ginger Man, including the one on 36th Street. CB3 OK'd his new liquor license for 20 St. Mark's Place in December 2017.

He told us said last August that the former Grassroots space was in bad shape — including structural damage. The approvals for the renovations in the landmarked building had been slow going. In November, Previous was hoping for a spring opening.

He did not respond to an email about this latest development. Updated: Precious confirmed that he is no longer taking the space. We'll have more about that in another post.

Meanwhile, gut renovations continue inside the space that was, for 42 years, home of the Grassroots until New Year's Eve 2017.

Jim Stratton, the longtime principal owner of the Grassroots, sold the business in 2017. In January 2016, Stratton sold the building to Klosed Properties for a reported $5.6 million.

The address, known as the Daniel LeRoy House, was built in 1832. It received landmark status in 1971, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Today, the front of the former Grassroots is covered in graffiti.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New owner lined up for the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place

20 St. Mark's Place, home of the Grassroots Tavern, has been sold

Last call at the Grassroots Tavern

Meet Noodles debuts on 3rd Avenue

Meet Noodles is set to open today at 50 Third Ave. between 10th Street and 11th Street.

This is the second outpost for Meet Noodles, which also has a location in Sunset Park.

Here's more about them via the restaurant's website:

Savory Chongqing noodle is called XiaoMian in Chinese, is a popular spicy and numbing noodle originated from Chongqing and popular in the whole country.

"Xiao Mian" in Chinese, which means "little noodles" in English. The term "Chongqing noodles" is typified by a variety of spicy noodle dishes that originated and exist in Chongqing, China, which are collectively referred to as xiao mian. Xiao mian is also prepared in other areas of the world, such as the United Kingdom and areas of Australia and the United States.

This renovated space was previously the Renew & Relax Spa.

Images via @abbychen_nycbroker

With a new menu, Little Tong dropping the Noodle Shop on 1st Avenue

[Photo Monday by Steven]

After a little more than two years on First Avenue at 11th Street, the well-regarded Little Tong Noodle Shop is undergoing a concept shift highlighted by a new menu and name, now officially going as Little Tong.

For the past two years, chef-owner Simone Tong specialized in mixian — a long, round rice noodle from China's Yunnan province.

And now, via the EVG inbox...

With the new menu (as of May 9) and concept, Chef Tong hopes to bring together traditional flavors with modern techniques and local ingredients to create dishes that continue to usher in the new era of regional Chinese cuisine in New York City ...

The new menu [has] a greater emphasis on shared plates and composed dishes showcasing market ingredients. Highlights from the first iteration of the menu include:

• Stir-Fried Fiddlehead Ferns and Guoba with pickled ramps, dan dan pork and crispy rice

• Macao Night Market Clams with Canto sausage, enoki, zucchini, and mala douban (fermented chili-bean sauce)

• Tieban Miyazaki A5 Wagyu with Yunnan salsa verde, alderwood sabayon and crispy herbs

• Tea-Smoked Duck Breast with XO fried rice, salted duck yolk and apricot sauce

As part of this evolution, the restaurant will drop "Noodle Shop" from its name (the Midtown East outpost, which opened last summer, will remain known as Little Tong Noodle Shop), but a handful of fan-favorite mixian dishes – including the Grandma Chicken and Chef’s Beef Shank versions – will remain on the menu.

Tong will also open Silver Apricot, an upscale Chinese-inspired restaurant in the West Village, later this summer.

Previously on EVG:
Little Tong Noodle Shop taking the former Schnitz space on 1st Avenue

Steiner East Village retail watch on Avenue A

With the news yesterday that Trader Joe's is officially coming to 432 E. 14th St. at Avenue A, several readers asked about the status of that large retail space in the base of Steiner East Village on Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street...



There's still an active listing for the 11,000-plus square feet of space...



The for-rent signs have been up outside the luxury condoplex — on the site of the former Mary Help of Christians church and school — since February 2018.

The idyllic rendering at the Steiner East Village website shows what looks like a restaurant/wine bar in the corner space on 11th Street along with some smaller shops.



We recently heard a Whole Foods rumor via an EVG reader, though there's currently not any evidence to support that claim.

See the U.S. debut of 'Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders' at Theatre 80

"Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders" — a "supernatural horror-thriller" written and directed by brothers Vicente and Fernando Cordero Caballero — makes its U.S. theatrical debut Friday night at Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place.

Here's a description of the film — "based on true events" — via IMDB:

Famed rock and roll guitarist Johnny Thunders arrives in New Orleans to get his life together after a toll of hardships, but instead falls into a dark journey and trail of events that are based on his real life unexplained mysterious death.

And the trailer...



The film starts at 8 at Theatre 80, 80 St. Mark's Place just west of First Avenue. Find pre-sale tickers here.

Thunders, aka John Anthony Genzale, Jr., was a New York Doll, and later a Heartbreaker who lived for awhile in the East Village. He died in April 1991 at age 38.

Trader Joe's finally confirms that a Trader Joe's is opening on 14th Street at Avenue A

Trader's Joe's has added 432 E. 14th St. to its list of store openings (H/T to the commenter who shared this!) ... officially confirming what was pretty well-known already...



In early February, an EVG reader spotted equipment marked Trader Joe's being moved into the retail space in the retail complex of the residential building called EVE here just west of Avenue A.

This confirmation arrives nearly two years since we first heard of a TJ's opening at this location. In May 2017, The Real Deal, citing anonymous sources, reported that Trader Joe's "quietly signed a lease about two months ago with Mack Real Estate and Benenson Capital Partners ... for 8,531 square on the ground floor and 14,170 square feet on the lower level."

However, there wasn't much else mentioned about this possible new TJ's location (aside from some TJ clerk gossip that it wasn't happening) in the ensuing months-years. Finally, in a preview of EVE last August, City Realty noted: "To the delight of residents and neighbors, Trader Joe’s is the building’s retail tenant."

Last October, I asked a Trader Joe's media rep at the national office if they were opening a store here. The response: "Unfortunately, we do not have any current plans for a store at that location."

Nevermind that TJ's was mentioned in the "East Village Life" section that lists nearby restaurants and stores. Per the EVE site: "Although with a Trader Joe’s in the building, you may not need to go too far."

Trader Joe's is reportedly tight-lipped about its operations ... which apparently includes not disclosing information about new locations, and likes to have store buildout details worked out before announcing a target opening date, as the Lo-Down has noted.

From the look of it, the retail space at EVE still has plenty of work left before it's retail ready.



The store is also right in the middle of the L-train slowdown-repair zone...



... the new L-train entrance on Avenue A will be almost right outside the TJ's front door...



As previously noted, it will be curious to see what impact this might have on the Associated directly across the street as well as the food-heavy Target a few hundred feet to the east.

TJ's is opening on the site of the onetime Peter Stuyvesant Post Office (1951-2014).

Previously on EV Grieve:
UPDATED: Did you hear the rumor about the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office branch closing?

Former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office slated to be demolished

The former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office will yield to an 8-story residential building

All about EVE, the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office-replacing rentals on 14th Street

Claim: A Trader Joe's won't be coming to new development at 14th and A after all

Trader Joe's: No current plans for grocery at 432-438 E. 14th St.

Looks like there's a Trader Joe's coming to 432-438 E. 14th St. after all