Happy early Valentine's Day from Union Square ... photo by Derek Berg.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Construction watch: 799 Broadway
[Photo from Saturday]
Workers are starting on the fourth floor of the incoming 12-story zig-zagging office complex on the southwest corner of Broadway at 11th Street.
The address was the former home of the recently demolished St. Denis building. Normandy Real Estate Partners bought the property for somewhere in the $100 million ballpark back in 2016.
According to a news release about the address: "799 Broadway will feature floor-to-ceiling glass, private terraces, and 15 foot high ceilings. This combination of highly desirable location and state-of-the-art design will appeal to New York’s most progressive and creative companies."
And (previously revealed) renderings of the new building via architects Perkins and Will ...
The official site for 799 Broadway is at this link.
This is the type of new development of concern to preservationists, who say this out-of-scale construction is a threat to the area south of Union Square, where other new development includes 809 Broadway.
This morning, the City Planning Commission holds a public hearing on the proposed hotel special permit requirement for Greenwich Village and the East Village south of Union Square.
Per the Village Preservation:
The Mayor’s campaign donors and supporters are real beneficiaries are of this plan, which does nothing to fulfill promises to protect these neighborhoods in the wake of increased development pressure from the City Council’s approval of the upzoning for the Mayor’s 14th Street Tech Hub [in August 2018].
As for the southwest corner of Broadway and 11th Street: The former St. Denis building, which was 165 years old, was noteworthy for many reasons. It opened in 1853 as the St. Denis Hotel, which is where Ulysses S. Grant wrote his post-Civil War memoirs and Alexander Graham Bell provided the first demonstration of the telephone to New Yorkers. (For more history, Jeremiah Moss, who once had an office in the St. Denis, wrote this feature titled "The Death and Life of a Great American Building" for The New York Review of Books in March 2018.)
However, the building was not landmarked... and it is not in a Historic District.
[Image via Wikipedia Commons]
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Report: Former St. Denis Hotel selling for $100 million
Report: Half of the units in Raphael Toledano's former East Village portfolio remain vacant
As The Real Deal reported yesterday, due to drawn-out court proceedings, a bankruptcy plan has yet to be executed for the buildings. According to Met Council, a tenants’ rights group, half of the 279 units have been “warehoused” since 2016. Per TRD: "The portfolio includes 226 rent-stabilized apartments, according to tax filings."
This past December, Tenants Taking Control — the group formerly known as the Toledano Tenants Coalition — reported that there were 136 vacant apartments across the 15-building portfolio. At the time, the group called on MRC to sell the 15 buildings to a nonprofit preservation buyer.
In comments to TRD, an MRC spokesperson blamed Toledano for the delay, saying, “The owner of the properties demolished the vacant units a few years ago and therefore the vacant units are not habitable at this time.” She said that Madison still does not own the properties despite the foreclosure in 2017.
In June 2019, Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement with Toledano to put an end to his harassment of tenants and to prevent him from engaging in speculative real-estate deals designed to profit by violating New York’s rent-stabilization laws.
The AG's investigation established that Toledano engaged in a pattern of fraudulent and illegal conduct throughout his work as a landlord and real-estate developer. He harassed tenants through coercive buyouts, illegal construction practices and failed to provide his rent-regulated tenants with utilities, repairs and other necessary services, according to the AG's office.
Toledano had received $124 million in cash and lines of credit from MRC to finance his $97 million purchase of the buildings.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Tenants call out Madison Realty Capital: Stop warehousing rent-regulated apartments
• Report: Raphael Toledano files for Chapter 11; $145 million deal for EV portfolio is off the table
Police looking for 5 suspects in robbery inside building near 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place
The NYPD is looking for five individuals wanted in a late-night robbery inside a building near Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place.
Police officials shared this info yesterday as well as the above images of three of the suspects...
The New York City Police Department is asking for the public's assistance in identifying the individuals depicted in the above photos wanted for questioning in connection to a robbery that occurred within the confines of the 9th Precinct. Details are as follows:
It was reported to police that on Thursday, Jan. 9, at approximately 12:30 a.m., at a residential building in the vicinity of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, five individuals followed the 23-year-old male victim to the second floor of the building and demanded his property.
One of the individuals lifted his shirt to reveal a handgun in his waistband. The victim complied and the individuals fled the building in an unknown direction with a wallet containing multiple bank/credit cards. There were no injuries reported as a result of this incident.
The NYPD report did not include any descriptions of the suspects.
Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online. All calls are strictly confidential.
La Mia Pizza coming to 4th Avenue
Signage is now up on Fourth Avenue between 13th Street and 14th Street, where La Mia Pizza will be setting up shop in the former Pie by the Pound space.
This appears to be an outpost of the La Mia Pizza on First Avenue in Yorkville. (EVG reader Jeanne Krier, who shared the above photo, has tried La Mia Pizza and likes it.)
Pie by the Pound closed here last July after 17 years in business. A regular told us that the lease was up, and the owner wanted to pursue other opportunities.
Bites of Xi'an looking to make its mark on 10th Street
Signage recently arrived for Bites of Xi'an on 10th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue (in the retail space below Turntable Lab)...
According to the restaurant's website, ownership also runs Xifu Foods in Brooklyn, Foody's Dumpling on Ninth Avenue and KungFu12 Szechuan in Clarksville, Md.
Once open, Bites of Xi'an will offer a variety of homemade noodles, dumplings and rougamo, a hamburger-like meat sandwich from Xi’an, the capital of China’s Shaanxi province.
This subterranean storefront has been vacant since Ramen Zundo-Ya closed in December 2018.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
[Updated] NYPD officer pinned between vehicles during traffic stop on Houston and Avenue D
According to media accounts, plainclothes officers had conducted a traffic stop on Houston and Avenue D/Pitt Street. ABC 7 reported that the suspect reversed his vehicle, pinning one of the officers against the police car.
The officer, from Police Service Area 4 on Avenue C and Eighth Street, reportedly suffered a leg injury and was taken up First Avenue to Bellevue.
The suspect drove off was arrested a short distance away, per the Citizen app. Charges are pending.
Updated:
CBS 2 has a different (and correct) version of what happened. According to the station, "an out-of-control van hit the officer's parked unmarked car from the back." The Post's account corraberates this version of the incident.
Police caught the driver of the mini-van nearby on Delancey and Columbia streets, per these two reports.
Updated 1/22
The Daily News reports that the driver of the mini-van was allegedly drunk:
Franklin Liz, 45, is now facing drunk driving, vehicular assault and reckless endangerment charges for starting a chain reaction on Tuesday evening that left a 39-year-old police officer in the hospital with a compound fracture to his right leg, cops said.
Bait & Hook has closed
The now-former home of Bait & Hook is for lease on the northwest corner of 14th Street and Second Avenue.
EVG reader Jimmy reports that a "closed for renovations" sign arrived last week...
... followed by the arrival of the for rent sign on Friday. (And H/T Shiv and Pinch!)
Bait & Hook opened as an alleged seafood restaurant in September 2012.
Per the press release at the time:
Bait & Hook offers a laid-back, relaxed atmosphere where seafood is the star. Diners can enjoy a reasonably priced meal without compromising high-end, quality cuisine and service. Bait & Hook provides the perfect destination for a quick bite, affordable date or a group gathering, with something on the menu to please everyone in your party.
"We wanted to open a place that offered New Yorkers an affordable, casual dining experience, with the feel of a seafood shack but the taste of an ocean-side eatery," said Executive Chef Joe Bachman.
The space soon earned the nickname Bait & Switch via a few neighbors when the place became a sports bar (an Eagles gathering spot during the NFL season) and SantaCon stop.
There were signs on trouble early last year when the "closed for renovations" signs arrived along with a three-day rent demand from the landlord.
Before Bait & Hook, the space was the Meatball Factory then Hole Foods ... and before that! The Pizza Hut-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's combo, which vanished in 2010...
2nd Avenue gas explosion trial recap
[Image via CBS 2]
A recap from the gas-explosion trial in case you were away this past holiday weekend. The sentencing took place on Friday...
• Trio responsible for the deadly 2nd Avenue gas explosion sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison (Friday)
• Convicted gas explosion landlord Maria Hrynenko out on bail; contractor, plumber remain behind bars (Saturday)
Meanwhile, here's a look from Sunday at the new building going up on Second Avenue and Seventh on two of the three lots destroyed on March 26, 2015...
Workers have been quickly erecting the Morris Adjmi-designed building at 119 Second Ave. — officially 45 E. Seventh St. — that will feature 21 condo units and ground-floor retail. The new building will include a commemorative plaque that honors victims Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón.
We expect the construction tarp to come down soon, revealing ...
[Rendering via Morris Adjmi]
In the spring of 2017, Shaky Cohen's Nexus Building Development Group paid $9.15 million for the empty lots at No. 119 and No. 121 that Hrynenko owned.
In a transaction from late 2016, Ezra Wibowo paid $6 million for the adjacent property at 123 Second Ave. that was owned by a different landlord who had no role in the explosion. There isn't any development planned there for now, according to previous reports.
Chase unveils its Coffee Shop-replacing sign on Union Square
Chase, the newish tenant on the southwest corner of West 16th Street and Union Square West, has erected its new vertical sign on the building — a bland attempt at replicating the familiar neon that was here for 60-plus years.
Food writer Nick Solares shared these photos...
A little history. The Coffee Shop, the Brazilian-American diner run by former Wilhelmina models, closed here in October 2018 after 28 years in business. The Chase branch opened on Dec. 17 ... along with Chase-partnered Joe Coffee. (There's also another vegan quick-serve outpost of by CHLOE on the 16th Street side.)
During the renovations, workers removed the 1950s-era Coffee Shop neon sign — which belonged to the cafe (called Chase, oddly enough) that predated the Coffee Shop by several businesses.
There was some hope that the old sign would return after a cleaning/refurbishment. Obviously that isn't happening.
[Photo via Jeremiah Moss]
The Sunshine Cinema closed 2 years ago today
Foundation work continues for the 9-story office building coming to 143 E. Houston St. between Eldridge and Forsyth ... at night, the site looks like the bombed-out ruins of a building...
The property was home for 17 years to the five-screen Landmark Sunshine Theater. The Sunshine closed two years ago today — Jan. 21, 2018.
East End Capital and K Property Group, who bought the property for $31.5 million in the spring of 2017, are putting in the office complex with retail space. The links below have more details on what has transpired and what's to come.
And look back at the space in December 2017...
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Sunshine Cinema-replacing office building moving forward; demolition watch back on
• Discarded theater seats and goodbyes at the Sunshine Cinema
• The 9-story boutique office building coming to the former Sunshine Cinema space
• A celebratory ad on the purchase of 139 E. Houston St., current home of the Sunshine Cinema
• The boutique office building replacing the Sunshine Cinema will be 'unbounded by walls' with an outdoor space called Houston Alley
Citi Bike docking station arrives on 12th Street at Avenue C
Almost one year ago to the day, Citi Bike announced citywide expansion plans for its fleet, a plan that included two new docking stations in the East Village — First Avenue at Fifth Street and 12th Street at Avenue C.
The First Avenue docking station arrived the middle of last month. And now last week, the docking station showed up on 12th Street and Avenue C...
This new Citi station features 41 docks for bikes.
H/T Choresh!
Previously on EV Grieve:
A look at where Citi Bike is expanding in the East Village
iSouvlaki Greek Grill on tap for 139 E. 12th St.
[Photo by EVG reader Laura]
There has been activity in recent weeks inside the vacant storefront at 139 E. 12th St. at Third Avenue... and late last week the sign arrived for the new tenant — the iSouvlaki Greek Grill, which looks to fall into the "fast casual" category.
The owners are said to be from Merakia on West 21st Street, the same proprietors who were behind the previous venture here — Greekito, which featured Greek tacos, beer and wine, and coffee.
Greekito closed in November 2018 shortly after changing up concepts from the Wayside, a cafe-coffee shop that lasted six years.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Monday's parting shot
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day... a look at what's left of the World Peace mural (circa 2010-2011) that includes his image on 12th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C...
Unfortunately, parts of this wall that faces the Children’s Workshop School have chipped away in recent years ... enough of the mural remains, though, to convey a message.
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