Live in this historic East Village synagogue (with hot tub) for $25K

Step right up here on East Eighth Street between Avenue B and C... and behold this "spectacular fourplex" ...



The Town listing is ...

One of the city's last tenement Shuls, now a chic landmarked building, this former synagogue was brilliantly transformed into a magnificent home in 2005 by world-famous designers from the Ian Shrager Hotels – earning recognition in Architectural Record for its extraordinary transformation, and attracting the likes of press, politicians and entertainment figures. Yours to rent is the exquisite result of their top-of-the-line gut renovation...

Other distinctive features that make this sun-drenched residence such a unique work of art are its custom-made windows that are exact replicas of when the building was a synagogue (including the Star of David!), and luxurious touches that include Brazilian hardwood cherry floors, hand-poured Brazililan glass mosaic tiles by Vidrotil, beautiful Wenge wood paneling, radiant floor heating, floor-to-ceiling steel cased windows and doors (the list goes on).

I'll say!





A three-six month lease available starting July 1. And as the headline says, it's $25,000 per month.

Mysterious plywood arrives at Mystery Lot

What is this? A stack of plywoody-looking plywood has arrived at the Mystery Lot...



...and it looks gently used...



Perhaps it's finally the beginning of the beginning of the end of the Mystery Lot... the space will become an 82-unit, eight-story development some day.

First item of business here: Removing the mystery masonry garden wall.

Also, remember... If you see something interesting along here, then please take a photo and send it our way... when the trucks, dumpsters and bendy things arrive in good time, we'll have a post sharing everyone's Mystery Lot shots... You can send them via the EV Grieve email

[And thanks to EVG reader Kim for sending along a plywood shot as well...]

Meanwhile: Don't delay, sneak in today!

Funny... we posted this a few weeks ago... and someone sent us an email and kindly asked us to remove the item... because they wanted to pay a visit before someone patched up the hole... it's still there!

Oh, we're kidding with that headline! We'd never, ever suggest that people do anything like enter the Mystery Lot for a photo opp via the hole in the fence along East 13th Street.

In fact, we are marching right over there this morning and patching up the hole.

Nightclub starter kit for sale on Avenue C

[Via Google Street Map View Thing]

There's a new listing for a club space at 24 Avenue C near East Third Street (the Oxygen Bar & Lounge space?) ... Per Streeteasy:

Take the stairwell that descends to be transported into a special space, tucked away in the East Village where nightlife rules. Behold, the perfect opportunity to own your completely renovated and fully operational lounge complete with bar, kitchen and full liquor license. The asking price of $325,000 gives you the keys to start your operation right away with a 10 year lease at $9,000 per month and the rights to transfer the liquor license to your business. This spacious duplex at around 2,400 square feet includes DJ booth, HVAC unit, separate VIP area located on the upper floor, outdoor smoking area and much more.

As of last night, the link to Citi Habitats wasn't work... so we don't have more information than this right now... Perhaps this is enough...

This is what a shaved ice stand on Avenue B looked like on June 8, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Digging in at 74-84 Third Avenue

On Monday, we noted that the big dig was starting this week for the new apartment complex coming to 74-84 Third Avenue... at East 12th Street... and we promptly never went by again for a look... However... Fresh Paint NYC sent some photos our way yesterday... just getting starting here... 10,876 blog posts on this to go...





Previously on EV Grieve:
Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smith's

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

Hot and Crusty workers asking for respect on 14th Street and First Avenue

EV Grieve reader Steven notes picketers outside the Hot & Crusty on 14th Street and First Avenue this afternoon...



The flyers that the picketers are distributing outline the allegations... including "We have been verbally abused by management because of our physical appearances. In some instances, we were called IDIOTS and a worker was called FAT IDIOT."

Hello Kitty not allowed in dog run

Tompkins Square Park today.

By Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[This morning in Tompkins Square Park]

Uptick in muggings in East River Park (DNAinfo)

Neighbors angry over short-term stay hotels in StuyTown (Curbed)

Tyra Banks will have an office in the new Lower Eastside Girls Club HQ on Avenue D (The New York Times)

Extras seek role in CBGB biopic (Savannah Morning News)

The City Council's public hearing on NYU's massive proposed Village expansion is Friday, June 29 at 9:30 am (Off the Grid)

The music of Odetta Hartman, daughter of the Two Boots founders (DNAinfo)

The future of the Folsom Street East festival now that new neighbors are uptight (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Another look at Gin Palace on Avenue A (Grub Street)

Farewell Sue Simmons (Gothamist)

... and BoweryBoogie has the scoop on the next nightlife venture for the former Provident Loan Society building on Houston and Essex...

[EVG file photo]

As he writes, "the new concept is pretty much everything you might imagine – crowds, $15 cocktails, and bottle service – brought to the Lower East Side by a nightlife player."

'Totally Clueless' in the East Village today

A crew will be filming "Totally Clueless" today on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. (And elsewhere? Didn't investigate all that closely) ... It's a new MTV series... that The Wrap described this way:

"Totally Clueless" will follow "Punk'd" into MTV's hidden-camera programming — with the difference being that, in the new offering, people will win cash for figuring out that they are on television. "Our team of improv actors puts people into escalating rounds of uncomfortable situations," the network said of the show. "The sooner they figure out they are on a game show the more money they win."

MTV should come back and film this weekend. They'd never have to hand out any money.

How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

[EVG photos taken on April 8]

Nice Guy Eddie's made their closure public this week on Facebook. The 16-year-old bar's last day is Sunday.

As Eater reported in April, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd the transfer of assets from the David McWater-owned Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at Houston/East First Street to an entity called Downtown Dining LLC led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar. Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food."

An EV Grieve reader who was at the April meeting noted that Rubell was noncommittal about keeping the Kiss mural on the restaurant's south wall along East First Street. (There was something to do with the size of the new windows for the space or something.) It seems rather unlikely that the mural would remain... As Greg at Eater put it, "That sweet, sweet Kiss mural will probably be the first thing to go."

While I like Kiss (well, mostly) and Chico's work, I don't have strong feelings about the mural ... or the bar... was never a place that I went to very often, if at all in the last 10-plus years. Still, I know people who do like it. (The bar and the mural.) Ditto for the burger on the Avenue A side.

If the mural does go... the entry points into the neighborhood have dramatically changed ... 14th Street and Avenue A is, for now, an empty lot ...

[EVG reader Tom]

Astor Place will be a (the?) Death Star...

And Avenue A and Houston with a new restaurant on the northwest corner and the Union Market on the northeast corner...

'Established food operators' wanted for former Polonia space on First Avenue

Just noting the for rent signs are up at Polonia, the homey Polish restaurant that closed last December here along First Avenue between Seventh Street and Sixth Street.

Not many details on the listing (such as monthly rent):

Neighbors:
Empellon Cocina, Subway, McDonald's, Caracas Arepa Bar, Luke's Lobster Bar, Porchetta NYC, Pylos, Ricky's and Cafe Mogador

Comments:
-- Prime East Village Location
-- Currently vacant
-- Direct deal
-- Seeking established food operators

Looked at who the broker, New Street Realty, has leased to recently... the recent transactions include The Growler Station on West Eighth Street ... a 16 Handles ... the Subway next door to Polonia ... five Hale and Hearty Soup locations... one 7-Eleven ... a Just Salad ... a few bank branches...

Anyone want to go with a Hale & Hearty as the next tenant here then?

Workers just as bored with 7-Eleven as we are

Workers at the incoming 7-Eleven on IHOP Way left the lights on for us...



...and no paper on the windows? Where's the challenge in that?



Anyway, no one was around to ask when the space might be opening here on East 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...

Previously on EV Grieve:
A quick East Village 7-Eleven inventory

7-Eleven to complete suburbification of East 14th Street

7-Eleven's feeble attempt at an anti-blogger shield on the Bowery

You can now rent Bret Easton Ellis' apartment in the American Felt Building

Yesterday afternoon, Foster Kamer at The Observer noted that L.A.-based writer Bret Easton Ellis was renting out his American Felt Building apartment on East 13th Street. (Ellis announced the rental via Twitter.)



Here's the listing via Warburg:

This is your opportunity to rent at the famed American Felt Building, one of the best-known and most coveted addresses in the Union Square vicinity. The area where this apartment is located actually includes eight different neighborhoods, as this former factory building is ideally situated at the crossroads of Gramercy, Union Square, and the East & West Village. . . . The food shopping alone makes the area a destination: the original Greenmarket, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods are all only minutes away. The apartment features maple floors, double sinks, 14' ceilings, oversized windows, and a washer/dryer. Building amenities include a common garden off the lobby and a roof deck. Topping it off is a private, exclusive, 400 square foot terrace. This is an open loft. There is no separate bedroom - but lots of open space where you can live the life you love.

[How loud can you play the Huey Lewis and The News here?]

Price: $5,000 a month. And you can see it during an Open House Friday evening 6-7 and Sunday afternoon 2:30-3:30. And you never know who you'll bump into.

What's taking over the TenEleven space on Avenue C

On June 5, we reported that TenEleven would be closing at 171 Avenue C at the end of this month.

A reader left us this comment on the post:

"The new bar there will be called Evelyn Drinkery, I believe. The guys are cool and have some cool ideas."

There is a landing page for the bar with an email address ... they also created a Facebook and Twitter account ...

Via Facebook, one of the Evelyn Drinkery proprietors declined to share any information about the new bar at this time. (For instance, we were curious about the new bar name, and if it had anything to do with one of TenEleven's owners, Evelyn McCue.)

However, he did say "I can assure you and your readers that we are all well acquainted with the neighborhood and only plan on beautifying The spot."

According to Facebook, they plan to open in August.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: TenEleven closing at the end of June

[Image via the Evelyn Drinkery website]

Nice Guy Eddie's closing Sunday

An EVG Facebook friend shared this news with us...



As Eater reported in April, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd the transfer of assets from the David McWater-owned Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at Houston/East First Street to an entity called Downtown Dining LLC led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar. Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food."

Is Ian Schrager going to build a hotel on the Bowery?

Hmm. According to Lois Weiss in the Post today, hotelier Ian Schrager is in contract for a new hotel.

Is the Bowery a possibility? Per the Post:

While he didn’t say where ... Schrager said he likes the Bowery, and that the bar and restaurant action there "bodes well" for hotels and residential.

Meanwhile, thoughtless construction equipment ruins a perfectly good pizza on Avenue A

A reader notes the following this morning in front of (a surprisingly clean-looking) 100 Avenue A...



One of the pieces of equipment the workers are using on the (gas?) main repair on Sixth and A made a special delivery...



Not sure which came first — the pizza or the wheel.

Is it time to leave the East Village?

A reader left this comment on the Starbucks post from yesterday... and I've been thinking about it...

It's a whole new demographic around here at this point. I know because I've talked to some of my neighbors who are recent college grads from places like Wake Forest or Villanova or Bucknell, etc. I've heard it from the horse's mouth — there is a whole culture here of these type of transplants. They really do hang out together at places like "13th step" and they really are clueless about this neighborhood and what it once was. It's a tidal wave, it's an epochal shift. The EV as you knew it is officially over. I hate to be a defeatist but IMO it is time to wave the white flag. I myself am planning to move out within a couple of years and it is the thought of that helps get me through my New York days.

I've heard variations of this sentiment many times — more so in the last few months than in any recent years ... I know people who have left — chased by the luxurification — to find lower rents in the upper reaches of Manhattan or the outer sections of Queens or Brooklyn... and I know people who continue to talk about moving, disgusted by the luxurification ... some people I know who discuss leaving cite as a reason the continued influx of more and more bars (and bargoers), one concept seemingly dumber than the previous one. Some people tell me that they don't fit in any more. Too old. Too weird. Too broke. Time to go.

Understandable.

Are you thinking about moving too? Are you ready to raise the white flag?

In closing, here's some perspective from a New York Times article (excerpted via Ephemeral New York here) titled "The affluent set invades the East Village."

The article is from November 1964.

Bowery Electric's new-look entrance; plus a new live room

We've been watching workers put in a new entrance over at The Bowery Electric...

Before...

[Bobby Williams]

We also recently watched a worker clean up the Bowery Electric's neon sign...

Anyway, here's the entrance now (well, as of Sunday anyway) ...



Aside from a new entryway... the Bowery Electric folks said that they are debuting a new live room tonight (it's at the back of the main bar) ... with a spoken word performance by Brother Mike Cohen...