Owners of Eleven B propose to open a Mexican restaurant in the former Mercadito space on B

[Photo via @salim]

Mercadito has been closed now for just about a year at 179 Avenue B between East 11th Street and East 12th Street.

If things work out, then there looks to be another Mexican restaurant opening in the space. Vincent Sgarlato, who owns Eleven B and 11B Express almost directly across Avenue B, will appear before CB3's SLA committee meeting on Monday for a new liquor license for the former Mercadito.

Paperwork (PDF!) made available to the public at the CB3 website shows a configuration of 19 tables and 38 seats. The proposed hours are 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday-Thursday; until 3 a.m. on Friday-Saturday.

There is not a working name listed just yet for the new restaurant.

CB3's SLA committee meeting is Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

P.S.
While on the topic of Mercadito... the former Mercadito Cantina space at 172 Avenue B between East 10th Street and East 11th Street remains empty and for rent. The space has been vacant since January 2011.

At the former home of the Broadway flea market, condos will cost upwards of $22 million

[EVG photo from last summer]

As previously noted, renderings for the 12-stories of condos rising at the former open-air shops on Broadway near East Fourth Street have made the rounds in recent years.

The Post had more details in an article yesterday titled "What it’s like to live on one of NYC’s secret streets." (H/T Curbed!)

The 16-unit project is known as One Great Jones Alley, which will include a "private gated alley."



According to the Post, sales will launch on St. Patrick's Day (woo, March Madness!). The units will will be priced from $4.62 million to $22 million. (Woo, March Madness!)

There's also a teaser site with a few more details and renderings... such as the master bathrooms...



... and the spa...



According to the One Great Jones Alley website, "the private wet spa pays homage to the bathhouses that once populated this area of Downtown Manhattan, incorporating Corten steel, Venetian plaster, stone, glass and wood throughout."

(Woo, March Madness!)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Retail plans revealed for 12-floor condo building replacing open-air market on Broadway

NoHo flea market gutted ahead of new condo project on Broadway

Looking at One Great Jones Alley, 'a private paradise'

Renderings via One Great Jones Alley

Something new for 9 St. Mark's Place, but not St. Mark's Place

A new sign arrived in late February at 9 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...



The upstairs space will soon be home to Nohohon Tea Room, a bubble tea shop with a location in Toronto.

Here's more about their product via their website:

Nohohon Tea Room offers a healthier alternative flavours for bubble tea enthusiasts! Keeping true to the owner roots our green teas are imported from Japan and are steeped to the every guests’ order. Nohohon Tea Room specializes for Matcha drinks, which are hand whisked to each order ensuring maximum freshness.

Our tea is white-sugar Free and uses no artificial powders or powdered milk in the drinks. Pure sugar cane and organic agave are used as a basic sweetener. We also offers an option of sugar-free sweetener and dairy alternatives, Almond milk and Soy milk to cater to your dietary needs. We are also able to offer Vegan and Gluten-Free bubble teas ...

According to Bedford + Bowery, who first reported on Nohohon's arrival, this will make the sixth business to sell bubble tea in this block of St. Mark's Place. (And probably not the last.)

This space was previously home to the Brooklyn Dark Hemp Bar, which closed after just three months last October when the city said the cafe needed four sinks — one for soaking dishes, two others for sanitizing and rinsing dishes, and one for hand washing.

We don't know how many sinks are inside now ... at least three...



Previously on EV Grieve:
First U.S. hemp bar is now open on St. Mark's Place

[Updated] City forces the country's 1st Hemp Bar to close on St. Mark's Place

St. Mark's Place without the Trash & Vaudeville signage; No. 4 in contract

Meanwhile, across St. Mark's Place, workers removed the rest of the neon signage at Trash & Vaudeville at No. 4 on Wednesday.

As you know, the shop is relocating from its home here since 1975 to 96 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. They haven't announced an opening date just yet. Their website remains open for business should the need arise in the interim.

Last November, 4 St. Mark's Place, the landmarked building whose first owner in 1833 was Alexander Hamilton’s son, arrived on the market with an asking price of $11.9 million.

According to the Eastern Consolidated website, the building is in contract...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Exclusive: After 40 years, punk rock mainstay Trash and Vaudeville is leaving St. Mark's Place

'Gentrification in Progress' tape arrives at former Trash & Vaudeville and Stage Restaurant spaces

How to get involved with Gardens Rising this year

[EVG file photo of Orchard Alley on East 4th Street]

As previously reported, Gardens Rising is a Superstorm Sandy inspired, HUD-funded grant through New York State for flood control green infrastructure in local community gardens.

And now via the EVG inbox...

Meet the Gardens Rising Steering Committee
You are invited to the first public meeting of the Steering Committee!
Sunday, March 13 at 4 pm
Sixth Street Community Center
638 E.6th St between Avenue B and C

Gardens Rising has an excellent Steering Committee in place!
The selection process has just been completed.
We are very grateful to this very talented group of people who have volunteered their time and energies to help improve our community.

Welcome new members of The Steering Committee:

• Tessa Huxley, former Director of Battery Park City Parks Conservancy
• Brigid Keating, Senior Project Manager of NYC Economic Development Corp
• Jack Linn, long-serving Assistant Commissioner of the NYC Dept of Parks and Recreation
• Ilan Kutok, Director of Green Infrastructure NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation
• Carlos Martinez, Assistant Director, NYC GreenThumb (non voting member)

They join the five elected Steering Committee gardeners:

• Sarah Zaborowski, representing the Great North Group, which are the 12 gardens on 11th, 12th and 13th Sts.
• Shawn Dahl, representing the El Pueblo Group, which are the eight gardens on 7th, 8th and 9th Sts,
• Carmine D'Intino, representing the Middle Earth Group, which are the nine gardens on 4th, 5th and 6th Sts.
• Herman Hewitt, representing the Mundo Verde Group, which are the eight gardens on 2nd and 3rd Sts.
• Kristin Ellington, representing the Southland Group, which are the ten gardens below Houston St and west of First Avenue.

The Steering Committee consists of nine members elected and selected from the greening community and one non-voting member from GreenThumb. The Steering Committee is responsible for adopting a Master Plan for the construction of storm water abatement measures in our community gardens.

Please come and meet the Steering Committee and have your voice heard. Gardens Rising is a very public process. Your input is essential to the success of this project.

This time of night

New Order played a sold-out show tonight at Radio City... which is good enough reason as always to trot out this footage of New Order's first NYC concert, which took place at the Ukrainian National Home on Second Avenue between East Ninth Street and St. Mark's Place on Nov. 19 1981.

Here is the entire show...



Our friend Karate Boogaloo has more about this show at Stupefaction.

P.S.
And we will save Alex from having to leave this comment: It's not really New Order without Peter Hook.

Avenue A sinkhole no longer sinking (for now)

[Yesterday! Wednesday!]

Nearly two weeks after its debut on Avenue A and East Third Street... the city has filled in the sinkhole, as EVG reader John Iz has dutifully noted (he documented it for us here) ...



No official word just yet about how many pylons were swallowed lost during these two weeks.

Noted

@edenbrower spotted this in Tompkins Square Park this afternoon. We might need more paper.

'Still doing it:' A visit to Howl! Happening on East 1st Street

[Photo from January by Stacie Joy]

Today at The New York Times, Michael Musto writes a piece on Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project, the gallery and performance space that opened last March at 6 E. First St. between the Bowery and Second Avenue.

Per the article:

“I want to remind people how great the neighborhood can be and reinvigorate it,” said Ted Riederer, the director of the gallery, which opened last year at a medium-size storefront at 6 East First Street, not far from the former CBGB, Sounds record shop and other departed East Village landmarks.

Exhibits rotate about once every three weeks, with openings that sometimes bring together the area’s cantankerous stalwarts.

An opening last October celebrated the Pyramid, the Avenue A club that was a hub of the downtown drag, music and art scene for much of the 1980s. At one point that night, the crowd cheered as the burlesque performer Paula Now flung her wig, which got stuck on the chandelier.

“Old-timers will say, ‘The East Village is nothing like it used to be,’ and I say: ‘Oh, really? Well, tonight we have performances with drag queens on the bar,’” Mr. Riederer said. “We’re still doing it.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
At the opening-night celebration for Punk Magazine

Dumpster of the day

Workers have been clearing out the former Hakata Hot Pot and Sushi Lounge spaces at 58 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue the past few days (the restaurants did not have their leases renewed) ... so if you're looking for any chairs from Sushi Lounge ... or maybe a Kirin Beer/Zen 6 sign...



...head here before the contents are carted off to a landfill.

As for Hakata Hot Pot, they have merged with sister restaurant Zen 6 at 31 St. Mark's Place one block to the west.

2nd Avenue residential complex now complete with renderings on the plywood

As you may know, there are city-approved plans on file for a 10-story retail-residential complex at 24 Second Ave. and East First Street. (Former home of a gas station and pretty good coffee, truth be told.)

Last October, we spotted a rendering for the new project... though not at the website of the architect of record (RSVP Studio) but rather the website for mortgage lender Ladder Capital.

Now renderings grace the plywood surrounding the construction zone...



Turns out it is the same rendering we saw last fall... Hello!



As New York Yimby first noted last July when the developers filed the permits, apartments will begin on the second floor, with four to five units per floor through the sixth story. The seventh and eighth floors will host two duplexes, and the ninth and tenth floors will hold one penthouse duplex with a private roof deck. Amenities include a shared terrace and recreation space on the second floor, and a fitness room, storage and bike storage in the cellar.

Permits show some 45,000 square feet for the 31 residences (rentals? condos?) … and another 5,700 square feet for the commercial space. (A vintage clothing store? Zine shop? Used CD exchange?)

Plywood aside, there hasn't been any new construction here to date, as a look through the handy blogger portal shows...



The BP — which was the second-to-last gas station left in the East Village — closed here in July 2014.

Previously on EV Grieve:
RUMOR: Gas station going, boutique hotel coming on Second Avenue? (31 comments)

BP station on 2nd Avenue closes this month

The 2nd Avenue BP station has closed

Report: 50,000 square feet of condos coming to the former 2nd Avenue BP station

Permits filed to demolish former 2nd Avenue BP station

More about the 10-story building taking the place of the former BP station at 24 2nd Ave.

A look inside the last East Village gas station

Check out the new 10-story building for the former 2nd Avenue BP station

A ballerina for 2nd Avenue

Residents at 37 Avenue B are still looking for their 'fair share' of the rent from Credit Union

On Tuesday, two banners arrived on the upper floors of 37 Avenue B at East Third Street... the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union (LESPFCU) is the retail tenant ...

The hand-painted sign on B reads "Save Our Home/Salva nuestros hogar" ...



... while the banner on East Third Street reads "LESPFCU do the right thing, save our home" ...


[Reader-submitted photo]

This is a continuation of an effort that the residents of the 37 Avenue B HDFC started last June.

HDFC board members released a statement reiterating their version of the situation.

The residents of 37 Avenue B HDFC are calling on the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union to pay their fair share or move out. Their building is broke because the Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union, which occupies the 5,000 square foot commercial space rewrote their own lease in 1996 to skip paying future mortgage payments, and real estate tax increases.

They saved $350,000 due under the original lease and the HDFC building is FLAT BROKE

We have to borrow money to pay the real estate taxes or lose the building. The building needs at least $400,000 in necessary capital improvements but there is no money even for basic repairs.

According to the board members, the Credit Union has refused to accept responsibility for the situation. The Credit Union pays $3,478 a month for 5,000 square feet. The HDFC says the market rate is $15,000 per month.

Credit Union officials have yet to comment on the situation at 37 Avenue B.

H/T Stacie Joy!

Previously on EV Grieve:
At 37 Avenue B, residents want their Credit Union retail tenant to pay more rent

Someone stole this poster from Theatre 80

We noticed this posted outside Theatre 80, 80 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue, the other day.

Theatre 80 proprietor Lorcan Otway is understandably plenty upset that someone took this poster for a play directed by his father from the lobby.

He wrote about it on Facebook:

TO WHOEVER STOLE THIS POSTER FROM THEATRE 80 You have taken something with no economic value, but caused immeasurable pain to members of the Otway family. There is no other copy of this poster. You have taken a token of memories few other people share...

And so moving forward...

We have had to remove from the lobby valuable historic pieces, which we shared with the public, and which have been enjoyed by people from around the world.

There is a reward for the return of the poster.

Rent the former Cock space on 2nd Avenue

[Image via RES]

The Cock moved north a few blocks on Second Avenue to the former Lit Lounge space back in December.

Now the Cock's former stomping ground at 29 Second Ave. between East First Street and East Second Street is for rent. (A for rent sign hasn't appeared on the empty storefront just yet.)

Here's the deal via RES Commercial:

This is an amazing opportunity to be just North of Houston Street in a location where the East Village meets the Lower East Side. Any tenant can easily capitalize on being en route to the only subway station in the neighborhood which is located at the Whole Foods anchored intersection of Houston & 2nd Avenue.

Coffee bar, quick serve café, retail or full service restaurant would all do well to operate in such a fantastic location. Potential to lease the 2nd floor along with the ground for a total of over 2,800 sf of space with double height frontage. Current tenant has a full liquor license in safe keeping and will cooperate on a transfer.

The rent is available upon request.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Confirmed: Lit Lounge is closing on 2nd Avenue

New, confusing signs up at the former Lit Lounge space

Reports: Prep school teacher arrested for having sex with 16-year-old girl in bathroom at Lit Lounge

[Updated] The Cock is heading to the former Lit Lounge space on Thursday