Hey, the Funkiberry space will become a pizzeria (again)

Workers have been busy inside the former Funkiberry froyo space on Third Avenue and East 12th Street. This past week, an EVG reader saw workers bringing in "regular, not wood burning, ovens." A worker also told EVG correspondent Steven that the space was to become a pizzeria. Not sure at the moment who the tenant will be.

Probably would have made sense to leave the pizza ovens intact after AAA (New) Amici Pizza got RentHikeitis and closed in July 2013. The corner space had been home to at least two pizzerias before this.

F-berry closed in March 2015 after nine months in business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Stuff that you can't make up: More FroYo for the East Village

Ghost signage uncovered on Third Avenue and East 12th Street

DOUBLE ghost signage discovered at 88 3rd Ave.

Hey, the Funkiberry sign is up on 3rd Avenue

Hey, Funkiberry is now open on 3rd Avenue

Hey, the Funkiberry space is for lease on 3rd Avenue

Hey, the Funkiberry closed on 3rd Avenue

Report: Eastville Gardens sells for $44 million on 8th and C

[Image via Streeteasy]

L+M Development Partners is the new owner of the Eastville Gardens, the 7-story residential building with an Associated Supermarket in the retail space on Eighth Street and Avenue C.

According to The Real Deal, who first reported on the transaction:

The developer paid $44 million to owner BFC Partners, which finished developing the building at 342 East 8th Street in 2002. The seven-story building, near Avenue C, has a mix of market-rate units and affordable housing. A Baptist church is also on the site, but doesn’t appear to be part of the deal.

The Commercial Observer reported that L+M and BFC swapped Manhattan residential properties as part of a 1031 exchange.

Eastville Gardens is on the site once occupied by El Jardin de la Esperanza.

Here's more on what happened there via The Local/New York Times:

In 1999, community gardeners occupied the site of the Esperanza garden with a giant frog sculpture that doubled as a tree house. Even after the site had been bulldozed, a late-night party descended into chaos as 150 people stormed the lot, clashing with the police and injuring seven officers. Gardeners had previously launched a court case, but the New York Supreme Court ruled the project could go ahead. (In response to a suit filed by then-attorney general Eliot L. Spitzer, another Supreme Court ruling halted all work on other community gardens — the day after the East Village site was bulldozed.)

Donald Capoccia, who operates BFC Partners, is behind the Jupiter 21 residential building at 11-17 Second Ave. ... as well as part of the venture developing Essex Crossing (along with L+M Development).

Not sure what, if anything, this might mean for the Associated. The owners can't seem to get a break. The same owners ran the Associated on West 14th Street that recently had to close due to an exorbitant rent hike ... as well as the Met Foods on Third Avenue and East 17th Street, which closed in April 2015. Principal owner Joseph Falzon and his partners have reportedly been working with Blackstone to come to an agreement for the Stuy Town Associated before their lease expires for that store in 2017.

And what will become of the unused lot between Eastville Gardens and 115 Avenue C? The only activity there the past 14 years has been someone cutting back the weeds.


[Photo from November]

A crawfish boil at the Parkside tomorrow (Saturday!)

The Parkside Lounge is having an all-you-can-eat crawfish boil tomorrow afternoon (details below) ... and the Parkside had a warm-up for tomorrow's boil back on April 21... EVG contributor Stacie Joy was there...









Here's the info for tomorrow... the boiling starts at 2...



The Parkside is located at 317 East Houston at Attorney. You can email them to make reservations.

Missing you

Just noting a tribute that arrived this week at 190 Bowery (at Spring Street) ... in memory of Prince and David Bowie, with an inscription "You will be missed" ...



The work is by @citykittystreet ...

Meanwhile, the conversion of the historic Germania Bank Building continues. Aby Rosen's RFR Realty owns the building and it's not known exactly what's going to happen to the landmarked building...



Previously

Prepare to meet your maker (or, Hi Christo!)

Christo atop St. Brigid-St. Emeric on Avenue B and Eighth Street today... waiting to pick up dinner for the family...

Photo by Bobby Williams

J.G. Ballard and the Cinema at the Anthology Film Archives

"High-Rise," based on the 1975 novel by J. G. Ballard, opens tomorrow at the Sunshine on East Houston. (Still kinda curious to see how this plays on film. Hey, 66% percent via Rotten Tomatoes!)

Coinciding with this theatrical release, the Anthology Film Archives is presenting a program titled J.G. Ballard and the Cinema:

British author J.G. Ballard is one of the towering figures of 20th-century experimental literature, a writer whose uncompromising, fearless, and sometimes frighteningly penetrating vision of our modern, technological society, and the psychological and erotic dimensions that underlie it, manifested itself in 19 masterful novels and many dozens of short stories. It’s curious that such a profoundly modern writer, and one who was, both in his life and his work, consistently preoccupied with the movies (he lived for 50 years in Shepperton, a stone’s throw from the famous Shepperton Film Studios), has seen so few of his works adapted into film.

As HuffPost put it, "This somewhat loosely structured series features films that have been directly influenced by Ballard, films that Ballard expressed admiration for, and films that just seem Ballardian in theme."

Things kick off tomorrow night with a double dose of David Cronenberg — "Crash" and "Shivers" aka "They Came From Within."

Check out the whole schedule here. (Highlights include a screening Saturday evening of "The Road Warrior," a film Ballard was said to admire.) The Anthology is on Second Avenue at East Second Street.

And check out the trailer for "Crash" (NC-17! The children!)...

In Vino closes for good on East 4th Street after service on Monday

[Image via Facebook]

After 13 years of serving Italian fare on East Fourth Street, In Vino is closing on Monday night.

The rustic restaurant, which opened in 2003, is owned by East Village resident Keith Beavers. (Updated: See the comments with more from Keith.)

A rent increase is not behind the closure — just a financial issue. "Weekday business just hadn't lived up to what it has been in the past," In Vino manager Dana Worstall told us via email.

As In Vino preps to close, starting tonight, wine glass pours will be $5 and bottles will be 50 percent off. In Vino, at 215 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. is open 5-11 p.m. weekdays; until midnight Friday and Saturday.

Report: Trader Joe's a possibility for the Extell Development on 14th Street and Avenue A

[The southeast corner of 14th and A yesterday]

It's possible that you will one day have the choice of two Trader Joe's to stand in line at on East 14th Street.

According to DNAinfo, Trader Joe's is looking at taking the retail space in Extell's incoming retail-residential complex along East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B

“It’s not a totally done deal, but we think that we’re close,” Ari Goldstein, vice president of development at the Extell Development Company, told DNAinfo New York.

If the deal pans out, Trader Joe’s will take over a storefront on the corner of East 14th Street and Avenue A, said Goldstein — in part to help offset the hellish lines at the chain’s most popular city location, sitting just a few blocks way at 142 E. 14th St. near Union Square.

“That is their most profitable store right now, and the line to get in that store … is insane,” said Goldstein. “They’re concerned they’re losing credibility with their customers because they’re not offering a good quality experience. So this would supplement that and pull a lot of traffic away from that store.”

The new location would serve customers in the East Village and Stuyvesant Town who would otherwise have to trek to the Union Square location, Goldstein said.

As we previously noted, a pollster for Fairway was soliciting opinions about the possibility of a new store for East 14th Street and Avenue A back in 2014. (A Fairway to this location isn't happening now.) In March 2014, a Facebook group formed to advocate for a Trader Joe's at Ben Shaoul's condotopia at 100 Avenue A. (Sorry — you got a Blink instead.)

As DNAinfo's Allegra Hobbs reported, Goldstein dropped this TJ tidbit for 500 E. 14th St. during CB3's Transportation & Public Safety/Environment Committee meeting Tuesday. The topic was about a request for loading zones for the development's commercial tenants. CB3 would need to OK all this before TJ would apparently commit to the location.

This grocery talk comes at a time when the owners of the Associated on East 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue are attempting to have their lease renewed.

Even if TJs signs up for this location at 500 E. 14th St., you'll likely still have awhile before shopping for, say, bags of Ode to the Classic Potato Chip here. The development appears to have a ways to go before it's ready for action. Workers are still filling in the foundation.

In total some day, the two 7-story complexes — 500 E. 14th St. at Avenue A and 524 E. 14th St. — will house more than 150 units, 32 of which will be below-market-rate.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The disappearing storefronts of East 14th Street

[Updated with correction] 8-lot parcel of East 14th Street primed for new development

New 7-floor buildings for East 14th Street include 150 residential units

1st activity at 500 E. 14th St. since the demolition phase, and when the standing water froze

Community meeting tonight to address construction noise at Extell's East 14th Street development sites

So much for that Fairway coming to East 14th Street and Avenue A then

Construction watch: 500 E. 14th St. (plus, Extell construction site still keeping residents up at night)

Construction enters awesome pile-driving phase at 438 E. 14th St.

While we're on East 14th Street... just noting that the pile drivers recently arrived for the start of the foundation work here just west of Avenue A...



There two for double the pile driving...



Anyway, as you likely know, plans call for an 8-story retail-residential building featuring 114 units, with 20 percent designated as affordable housing.

And here's another look at the renderings on the plywood along the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office...





If a Trader Joe's does sign up for the southeast corner of 14th Street and Avenue A, then do you think they'd be a need for a market as depicted in the above rendering?

Previously

Report: Steve Croman earned $23 million from his East Village properties in 2014

On Monday, news broke that landlord Steve Croman of 9300 Realty was hit with a 20-count indictment on charges including grand larceny and filing false documents ... as well as a civil suit.

Croman, who reportedly owns more property in the East Village than any other landlord, faces up to 25 years in prison.

In a story posted yesterday, The Real Deal dug into public records to figure out Croman's revenue and expenses from his 145 buildings, which was used to estimate his net income.

According to The Real Deal's research, Croman owns 47 buildings in the East Village with 617 units. His gross income just from the East Village properties was estimated at a little more than $23 million. (In total, he took in some $63 million in 2014, per TRD.)

Here's an excerpt from TRD:

At six of his properties — 380-382 East 10th Street, 145 East 26th Street, 44 Avenue B, 20 Prince Street, 199 East 3rd Street and 325 East 5th Street — Croman was charged with changing the rent rolls in an effort to make the property’s income appear higher than it was. In one instance in 2012, Croman reported that all 20 units at 380-382 East 10th Street were market-rate, according to Department of Finance records reviewed by TRD. However, all 20 units were listed as rent-stabilized in the prior year, and 10 were marked as rent-stabilized in 2013. At present, three of the apartments are listed as rent-stabilized.

According to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s lawsuit, Croman allegedly would walk through his office chanting "buyouts buyouts," and staffers received sizable bonuses for every successful buyout.

The moment when a dog urinated on Donald Trump's portrait outside Tompkins Square Park

If you were around Seventh Street and Avenue A outside Tompkins Square Park earlier today, then you likely saw the large portraits of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Yonkers-based artist Jeffrey Reid has shown his work here in the past. (Like here and here.)

Anyway, EVG reader John Iz happened to be here at the moment a dog endorsed the Trump portrait...

[Updating] Danger of falling bricks on 9th Street and 3rd Avenue

[Photo by Steven]

In case you wandered what all the helicopters were doing circling...

According to NBC 4, someone noticed a 10-by-10 foot section of the facade starting to separate from the building on the 15th floor at the St. Mark, 115 E. Ninth St. at Third Avenue.

We'll update when more info comes through...

6:09 p.m.

Yikes... you can see where the problem is...here between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street...


[Photo by Steven]

6:31 p.m.

There are at least six firetrucks on the scene... and several small rescue vehicles. There isn't any word of injuries. And there are conflicting reports if any bricks actually fell to the sidewalk bridge below...







Thanks to Steven for the photos...

Updated 9:33 p.m.

Crews are on the scene shoring up the facade this evening...





Photos via EVG reader Christopher

Updated 10:30 p.m.

A resident of the building shared this "this poem/rant/list of questions" that someone put in the elevator tonight. "Tenants are pissed too," the resident told us.



Here's part of an updated report from CBS 2:

Initially, there were reports that bricks fell from the building, but the FDNY later said that was not the case.

There was no immediate threat to public because there was already a sidewalk shed in place, the FDNY said. Only three apartments were evacuated.

Late Wednesday, Third Avenue remained closed between 9th and 10th streets. It was not known when the street would reopen.

5/12

As of around 7 a.m.





Third Avenue remains closed between Ninth Street and 10th Street ... and East Ninth Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue is also shut down.

Per ABC 7:

Firefighters have built a temporary wooden brace to keep bricks from falling from the 14th through 16th floors. The New York City Fire Department will remain on the scene with one engine until the facade is inspected by the engineer.

A boom truck is being used for more permanent repairs.

The building has 17 open Buildings Department violations, including one for facade safety. There is also an ongoing violation for failure to certify correction of a prior violation, which will require payment of a penalty to DOB.

On the ground level, workers have been tearing down the walls and gutting the former P&P Convenience Store, East Village Cheese (now on Seventh Street!) and Excel Art and Framing Store (now on the other side of Third Avenue!)... to help expand the Duane Reade on the East 10th Street corner.

Updated 1:30 p.m.

The streets around the building remain closed...



... and from the look of the photo via Steven... it appears just one worker is on the job now. Perhaps there are others inside...



Updated 2:30 p.m.

OK, there are several workers in the hanging scaffolding... as these photos via EVG reader Robert F. show...



...and the scene around the zone... Most of the storefronts between Ninth Street and 10th Street are vacant...





Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors: Duane Reade expansion will take over adjacent storefronts, including East Village Cheese (74 comments)

East Village Cheese makes move to 7th Street official

The New Museum is expanding on the Bowery

The New Museum will nearly double its size on the Bowery.

Here are some details via the EVG inbox...

The New Museum is launching an $80 million capital campaign to mark both the Museum’s fortieth anniversary and its tenth year on the Bowery. The campaign, which will support expansion and growth of Museum programs and more than double the endowment, has already received $43 million in lead gifts from several members of the Board of Trustees.

After nearly a decade on the Bowery, during which visitation has grown by 400 percent and the number of people served by its programs has grown 4,000 percent, the New Museum is bursting at the seams. Renovating its adjacent property at 231 Bowery will provide additional space for programs while adding urgently needed office and support spaces. The expansion effort will ultimately enable the Museum to double its exhibition galleries, expand educational initiatives, improve circulation, add more public amenities, and improve the visitor experience.

231 Bowery was home to Daroma Restaurant Equipment until the spring of 2011 when they moved down the Bowery (and the owner pleaded guilty to tax fraud). The New Museum bought the building for $16.6 million in September 2008.

According to The New York Times, the address once provided "raw studio space for seminal New York artists like James Rosenquist and Tom Wesselmann."

The combined 231 and 235 "would increase the museum’s footprint for exhibition space, storage and offices to a little more than 100,000 square feet, from 58,000 square feet now," per the Times.

Photo courtesy the New Museum. Dean Kaufman, 2015

Out and About in the East Village

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



By James Maher

Name: John Ellert and Sam
Occupation: Retired, director of nonprofit, Vietnam veteran.
Location: Tompkins Square Park
Time: 1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 9

I was born in Far Rockaway, Queens. I’m from the south shore. I started coming around here with the influx of the counter-culture influence in the mid-60s. I was hanging out down here when I got drafted and went to Vietnam. Actually my last night in New York, I spent over on St. Mark's Place at the Electric Circus – it was either the Electric Circus or the Balloon Farm.

I lived around here in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1960s, there was a mixture of people that were living here. A, B, and C – it was nothing like it is now. There were a lot of kids. There was a lot of flops, and hippie kind of culture, and there was also a Latino culture, very very strong, from the neighborhood. Sometimes [the groups] butted heads.

In the 1970s, with the influx of hard drugs it became very different. This was a very hard neighborhood. If you moved in here in the early 1970s and got a place on Avenue A or Avenue D, you might have some kid using a carjack to bring up your window guards, to keep people out. The smallest kid would come in — they might clean you out while you stepped out to go to the store. It was a tough place to live.

Then in the 1980s, I lived over on the Bowery. There were a lot of flops. There were places like the Whitehouse, the Sunshine, different places. I lived across the street from CBGBs. I’ve also been homeless down here, and now I have a co-op down here.

I’m a street guy, a blue-collar guy. I went back to school kind of late in life. I went to graduate school and then I became the director of a program in Lower Manhattan. They worked with homeless people and helping people to get back to work. I left there a couple years ago.

I was living on 73rd Street and I would come downtown once in awhile to do stuff when I wasn’t working in SoHo, but I’d come right around here and the feeling would change immediately. I said, ‘I gotta get back here.’ Just cruising around and going into different stores and noticing the restaurants and the people that I would meet. Then I got this co-op. It’s my favorite neighborhood in the world. There’s diversity, and kind of just the spirit of acceptance of all kinds of lifestyle that you don’t feel everywhere. You hear it spoken but… you know there’s music in the air down here.

I constantly question myself, you know, or the people that walk by. I just did it — a guy asked me for change, and I was listening to one of my favorite old songs and I didn’t really… I said no. But ordinarily, what’s a little change, and he deserves some acknowledgement. It’s a neighborhood that if you’re going to be part of it, be part of it. Don’t be part of some of it. Say hi to people. Acknowledge their existence. Although none of us are perfect and we don’t always do it, I think it’s important to keep questioning ourselves. I always question myself, if I’m being part of what this is about down here, or what is should be about.

I’ve been a drug addict and an alcoholic. I mean, that’s how I ended up homeless on different occasions. I’ve gone through a lot of things. I remember getting sober in 1990 and coming down here and watching punk kids drawing up needles out of the water fountains on a Sunday afternoon when people had their kids here. This was strange even for me. Even I used to hide somewhere.

What do we want this to be? New York has been deprived of its neighborhoods. Everything keeps changing and this is going to change, and what do we want it to be? It’s up to each one of us individually.

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