215 E. 12th St. is available for $16 million

The townhouse on East 12th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue arrived on the market yesterday.

Here's part of the listing via Sloane Square NYC:

Sensational, Chic & Unique 4-Story 25 foot wide Townhouse with oversized 1,100 sqft Garden on a beautiful East Village block. It is a Single Family House with approximately 5,000 sqft (approx.), and Oversized Garden and 5,000 sqft FAR +/-. This amazing 14 Room Townhouse features 8 Bedrooms, 5 Bathrooms including Master Bedroom Suite with a Dressing Room and large Sitting Area. The ceilings soar to 13.5ft. The oversized floor to ceiling windows, plus dramatic skylight add style. Beautiful original details add drama to this gorgeous Townhouse. Extraordinary light throughout!

Please note: Separate Income Producing 3 Room Apt – easily integrated into Townhouse.

Perfectly located in the East Village, which is one of the hottest areas in New York City filled with great nightlife, a vibrant art scene and incredible restaurants. This area of Manhattan is filled with luxury Condominiums and beautiful Townhouses.

Asking price: $16 million.

Public records show that the home last changed hands for $4.3 million in 2007. The New York Times featured the home and its owner, an original partner in the Kate Spade brand, back in July 2008.

Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

This past Friday, reps for Caerus Group and Quality Capital filed plans for a 14-story, 70,000-square-foot retail-and-office building at 827 Broadway, as The Real Deal reported.

Per the article:

Retail will span the first three floors of the building, with the remaining 11 floors devoted to office space. The plans call for terraces on the fourth floor and roof — an amenity many landlords in the Midtown South market consider a necessity in order to attract tenants.

According to DOB records, there were plans filed in December for a "10-story vertical enlargement ... to existing 4-story building." Now there are just plans for a new building.

So apparently this means the two existing four-story buildings between 12th Street and 13th Street will be demolished. There aren't any demo permits on file yet.

Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought 827-829 and 831 Broadway last summer for $60 million. The deal reportedly included 30,000 square feet of air rights.

Antiques mogul Howard Kaplan previously owned the buildings for 35 years.

Here's some history of the buildings:

Italiante commercial building built by tobacconist Pierre Lorillard III (1796-1867) on property owned by the family until 1940. Lorillard was grandson of Pierre Abraham Lorillard (1742–1776), founder of the American tobacco industry with 1760 launch of P. Lorillard & Co. In 1867, No. 827 was shop of cabinetmaker Alexander Roux (1813-1886). From 1980s until 2008 was a club, La Belle Epoque.

Cox statue cleaning today in Tompkins Square Park

Time to clean the statue in honor of Samuel S. Cox, whose career included being United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Also, as you may know:

He was a backer of the Life Saving Service, later merged into the United States Coast Guard. He was also known as the "letter carriers' friend" because of his support for paid benefits and a 40-hour work week for U.S. Post Office employees. In gratitude, postal workers raised $10,000 in 1891 to erect a statue to Cox in Tompkins Square Park in New York.

Photo by Bobby Willaims

June 14

EVG reader Susan spotted this tonight on East Fifth Street... we aren't disclosing the cross Avenues because we are heading over now to claim it for ourselves — plenty of green left on it for December!

Sweet Generation selling rainbow cupcakes for Equality Florida

Our hearts are with Orlando and the LGBTQ community. We will be selling rainbow cupcakes to raise money for the families of the victims. All proceeds will be donated to Equality Florida. @equalityfl #LoveIsLoveIsLove #WeAreOrlando #EqualityFlorida #sweetgeneration

A photo posted by Sweet Generation (@swtgeneration) on Jun 13, 2016 at 8:49pm PDT

Sweet Generation is at 130 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Seventh Street. The store is open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; until 9 p.m. on Friday and 10 p.m. on Saturday.

Gothamist has photos from last night's vigil at the Stonewall Inn here.

After 15 years, Artikal is closing on 12th Street

Tomorrow is the last day in business for the 15-year-old Artikal Handcrafted Millinery at 510 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The building is part of the East Village portfolio that Raphael Toledano bought last fall.

"They refused to even offer me a lease renewal," Artikal owner Holly Slayton said via email. "I am looking for a new location close to my house. I am a single mom so my location two doors away is ideal."

So far, Slayton said that she hasn't had any success finding a new space.

Slayton is also a resident of another Toledano-owner building, the first one that was reportedly inspected for high levels of lead dust.

She says that she has been working with local elected officials and community groups on measures to help protect small businesses against "predatory landlords."

Other businesses to close or relocate from Toledano-owned buildings include Podunk - the American Tearoom on East Fifth Street and Hakata Hot Pot and Sushi Lounge, which split space on St. Mark's Place.

Workers clearing out the mysterious 84 2nd Ave. storefront

Several EVG readers yesterday alerted us to some dumpster action outside 84 Second Ave. between Fifth Street and Fourth Street.

Mr. Baggs spotted workers removing misc. items from the long-empty storefront...





Here's a cut-n-paste from a previous post about this address, which has prompted some mystery through the years:

In February 2009, a man who said that he lived and worked nearby for years told Jill the following about the building:

It used to be a place that sold tuxedos and formal wear. The family had several children, but one of them, a daughter, was raped and murdered in the top floor, possibly in the 1940's [note: it was actually 1974].

The killer was never found. The children (or one of them and a spouse?) still live there and refuse to renovate or change anything. The top floor is exactly the way it was when the daughter was murdered and you can still see the powder where the cops dusted for fingerprints. This man had been inside once and was witness to its originality. He said they have no intention of selling or changing or even of renting out the storefront.

The name of the family is Sopolsky.

This is from The New York Times, dated Jan. 18, 1974:

The nude body of a 40-year-old woman propietor of a tailor shop that rents tuxedos on the Lower East Side was found bludgeoned to death. The victim was Helen Sopolsky of 84 Second Avenue, near fifth Street, whose shop is one flight up at that address. The motive of the attack was not determined immediately...."

Here's more history of 84 via Lost City from February 2012:

It was a temporary home for women in 1884, open to "self-supporting homeless young women, with or without a child." Morris Kosturk, 40, was found dead there in 1921. And Aaron Schneider, who lived here in 1964, was the victim of a hit and run driver.

For years (decades?), you could see a plastic-covered dinner jacket in the second-story window with the neon sign that reads "DRESS SUITS TO HIRE."

[Photo by Jeremiah Moss]

Here are more photos from yesterday via EVG reader Paul Dougherty...





One of the workers yesterday told EVG correspondent Steven that the woman who had lived in the building (and the owner of it) was taken to a nursing home several months ago.

The worker was unsure what was going to happen to the space. There aren't any work permits on file with the DOB for the address. And public records show that building is still in possession of the Sopolsky family...


[Photo by Steven]

C & B Convenience Store has closed on 14th Street

The East 14th Street turnover continues... C & B Convenience Store at 248 E. 14th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue shut down last week...The Marshal came calling too...



After an apparent rent increase, Saving$ Paradise next door at No. 250 recently merged with IQ Decor a few storefronts to the west.

Taking bubble tea bets now.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Coming and going on East 14th Street

[Updated] Guaco Taco has not been open lately

Guaco Taco opened on Second Street, just east of First Avenue, on May 20.


[Photo from May 20]

However, the quick-serve restaurant hasn't been open of late... going back to the last two weekends. The owners haven't left any notes to potential customers about a temporary closure due to some unforeseen circumstance. (Perhaps they needed some additional permits?)

IF Guaco Taco is closed for good … then it will have the dubious honor of being one of the quickest openings-and-closings in recent memory. In 2011, an Italian restaurant called Tre Scalini closed after less than two weeks at 130 St. Mark's Place.

Updated 6/24

Guaco Loco is now back open...

Paper now adorns the windows at the temporarily closed Dahlia's

[Photo from May]

Dahlia's on Second Avenue at Fifth Street temporarily closed in early May while the State Liquor Authority decides their future booze fate.

Yesterday, EVG correspondent Steven noticed that the windows have been papered over...





No word just yet what might be happening to the space.

Back in February, the SLA temporarily suspended Dahlia's liquor license after serving a reported 50 minors one night.

According to the Post, officers from the 9th Precinct a half block away found the exits at Dahlia's locked "and more than 40 well-heeled teens — one only 15 years old — quaffing 'monster margaritas' and mojitos" one night in January.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Dahlia's busted after cops find 43 minors drinking inside locked restaurant

More about the underage drinking bust at Dahlia's; plus, reaction from NYU students

Today in Tompkins Square Pork

Photo by Bobby Williams

Updated 6/14

You can follow along @thecircumcisedpig on Instagram

Previously

The penthouse at 347 Bowery sells for $17 million (or somewhere in that $$$ ballpark)

It doesn't look like much now behind the construction netting, but 347 Bowery likely just set a price record for the Bowery.

The three-floor penthouse at the 13-story condoplex is in contract after three days on the market, Curbed first noted. The asking price had been $17 million. (That's just an estimated monthly moetgage payment of $80,673, per Streeteasy.)



The transaction hasn't hit public records yet, so it's unclear what the buyer actually paid for the penthouse. According to Curbed, the Bowery condo record was previously held by a penthouse at 250 Bowery, which closed for a paltry $5.5 million last year.

347 Bowery is rising at the former spot of the Salvation Army's East Village Residence at East Third Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Salvation Army's former East Village Residence will be demolished on the Bowery

Whatever happened to that really ugly hotel planned for the Bowery?

Looks like 347 Bowery will be home to a 13-floor mixed-use residential development

The future of 347 Bowery (sorta!) revealed

Let's take a look at 347 Bowery, now and in the future

Report: Molly Ringwald's East 10th Street duplex is for sale

[Image via Streeteasy]

A two-bedroom, 1.5-bath co-op that actress-singer Molly Ringwald has owned for the past 12 years at 122 E. 10th St. is now on the market, the Observer reports.

Here are some excerpts via the listing (Robert Lewis of Weichert Properties has the listing and is showing the property):

Step back in time as you enter this gorgeous duplex penthouse in a James Renwick Jr. designed, 1861 Anglo-Italianate row house.

Celebrity owned and lovingly restored, 122 East 10th Street Apartment 4/5 belongs on the cover of "Architectural Digest". The living room is filled with original details, such as the 10' exposed beam ceilings, a pair of antique wooden windows, and a decorative marble mantel, which frames the first of two wood burning fireplaces. Walk through an arched hallway and there is a marble powder room (convertible to a full bath) and coat closet on the way to the chef's kitchen. Four south-facing windows in the kitchen create an ideal space to grow your own herbs.


[Image via Streeteasy]

It offers the best of both worlds: Historic and private townhouse living, with the safety and convenience of a co-op. Well worth the fourth floor walk up!

Asking price for the home between Second Avenue and Third Avenue: $1.795 million.

Ringwald, 48, who starred in motion pictures such as "The Breakfast Club" and "Pretty in Pink," primarily lives in Santa Monica with her husband and three children.

Her connection to the neighborhood reportedly spans 30 years, when she moved into the American Felt building at 114 E. 13th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue at age 18.

Foundation looks set as 500 E. 14th St. finally shows some street-level progress

After some 13-months of post-demolition work at 500 E. 14th St., it appears as if the foundation is set here on the corner of Avenue A... as least that's what it looks like via the handy blogger portals in the plywood...





The pumps have been going 24/7 to dewater the property for Extell Development's two 7-floor retail-residential buildings. (A quick reminder: 500 E. 14th St. will have 106 residential units … while, further to the east, 524 E. 14th St. will house 44 residential units.)

As the developers at 432-438 E. 14th St. a block to the west have discovered, there are elevated groundwater levels and soft soil courtesy of an underground stream.

Anyway, Extell Lake seems to be a memory now at No. 500.



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