Advocate for East Third Street buildings moving to Washington Heights

[April 2012]

As we were first to report this past March 15, Abart Holdings LLC was ready to sell three buildings at 50, 54 and 58 East Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Tenants with market-rate apartments weren't having their leases renewed. Per one resident in March:

"There are definitely much older families who live in the building, and suddenly they've been unceremoniously thrown out. The building is terrible as it is — several break-ins, terrible staircase, the entrance is poorly maintained — and now they are kicking everyone out."

Ben Kim at the Voice discovered that the landlord behind Abart Holdings LLC is Abe Haruvi. (The Voice wrote in October 2000 about how Haruvi allegedly tried to evict long-term tenants elsewhere in the city.)

The residents banded together and formed a tenants group; local politicians came out to offer support during a rally on May 7.

In the end, though, the Big Real Estate Machine was too great to overcome.

On Sunday, resident Sue Palchak-Essenpreis, who helped rally her fellow tenants, told us that she and her husband are moving out after 15 years. They tried to fight the non-renewal of their lease, which was up in May. On Friday, she and her husband appeared in housing court to see if they would have to pay the legal fees of Abart Holdings. She shared an email that she sent to other residents. In part, it read:

It is with heavy hearts and an empty bank account that Greg and I share the news that we are officially leaving.

We gave it the best that we had, but Abart's Goliath proved too huge for our humble David. The terms of the lawsuit were brutal and frightening, but in the end we settled. We ended up forfeiting our security deposit, which would cover one of the 2 months we were here past our lease end, and they accepted our last rent check. They did not hold us to the $3,500 per month they wanted us to pay, nor their legal fees, which was also in the suit. Their lawyer wrote into the settlement that they cannot come after us for any further damages to the apartment once we vacate. They will put a black mark on our credit that will be listed as "Settled to Satisfaction" once they prove we have truly vacated by July 14.

We are moving to Washington Heights.

I encourage any and all stabilized tenants to utilize 311 to it's fullest extent! Keep up the fight for acceptable living conditions! Hold Abe Haruvi accountable for the buildings that he is willing to destroy lives over!

We didn't go quietly. We fought the best fight that we could. And at the very least, we shed light on the fact that there is a real need for rent regulation and tenant protection...

Palchak-Essenpreis said that she received a few responses to her email, and that others in the buildings have either moved out or are in the process of doing so ... And a few of her former neighbors "paid outrageous brokers' fees, only to move into less space with giant rent increases."

"Abart wins, totally unaware of the devastation he's left in his wake," she said later in an email. "I cannot speak for the others, but we are completely destroyed... All because someone wants a couple extra hundred bucks a month off of our home."

Yesterday, residents received notices that the buildings were sold to Safeguard Realty Management Inc. is the new property manager.

And the couple, who are moving to Washington Heights tomorrow, received notice that they owe next month's rent.

"It just doesn't stop," Palchak-Essenpreis said.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Three apartment buildings sold on East Third Street

Know your rights: Help with understanding NYC rent laws

More about the lease renewals at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St.

Tenants at 50, 54 and 58 E. Third St. banding to together in face of building sale

Is Duane Park in the Bowery Poetry Club's future?

As noted previously ... We've heard a lot of speculation in recent weeks about the future of the Bowery Poetry Club. All sorts of rumors have been flying around, from an imminent closure to a months-long renovation. On June 21, founder Bob Holman assured us the Club was not closing permanently.

A commenter left this on our Jugger-nut post last night... and it falls in line with what we've heard of late about the Club's future:

Around the BPC, it is pretty well known at this point that BPC is 1st closing for months of renovation. (i.e. transformed into an upscale supper club and stripped of it's salt-of-the-earth art aesthetic and events.) After, it is being leased by said fancy supper/cabaret club Duane Park. Many Bowery performers do indeed perform there, but their dinner/show night is $75 and their show content is mostly cabaret jazz and upscale burlesque. Apparently Bob will be booking the club on Sundays on Mondays only? So perhaps a few poetry events of choosing will remain at the BPC.... I will miss the BPC terribly.

Side note: Lady Gaga made a surprise appearance at Duane Park's After Dark party back in 2010. You can look at more of the Tribeca club's jazz and burlesque offerings here.

Mourning continues at Mystery Lot

Yesterday.

Previously.

Looking at new lodging options in Tompkins Square Park

Friday...

Yesterday...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Back to work on the Seventh Street sinkhole

On June 22, a moving truck got stuck in a pothole-turned-sinkhole on East Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... Crews worked to cover up the hole on June 22 and 23...

However, workers returned for the first time yesterday to finish the job...

EVG reader Chris Kilmer notes that some residents along have been without gas service since Jun 22 ... Via Chris, some aerial views of the extensive sinkhole-sewer repair...

Forcella aiming for a sidewalk cafe on the Bowery

Over on the Bowery, Forcella — La Pizza di Napoli, which opened last fall, is seeking a sidewalk cafe... per the notice on the pizzeria's front window, the hearing on the matter is this Thursday afternoon...

...and here's the view outside the restaurant looking south...

...and north...

Noted

Spotted on the plywood outside the David Schwimmer construction site at 331 E. Sixth St.

Kiss alive II

Back with an update at 10 p.m. (Kidding! Probably.)

Here's Jugger-nut at the Bowery Poetry Club

On Saturday night (well, actually early Sunday morning), Jugger-nut performed for the last time at the Bowery Poetry Club. (The band is still going strong; it's the Club's future that is rather uncertain at the moment. Read more about all that here.)

Anyway, band photographer Walter Wlodarczyk shared some photos from the set... a little something to prep you for the Fourth of July...

Find more info about Jugger-nut on the band's Facebook page.

Just added! Video by Maks Suski from the show...

Noted

Outside JoeDough on First Avenue this afternoon. Photo by Andrew Adam Newman on Avenue C.

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop looking for a new, smaller home

In an article Crain's posted this afternoon about Hue-Man Bookstore & Café closing its doors in Harlem, reporter Matthew Flamm also notes:

St. Mark's Bookshop, a literary fixture in the East Village for 35 years, is hoping to move out of its current home when its rent goes up toward the end of this year.

According to the article, the $250,000 small business grant that St. Mark's (and many others) applied for from Chase Bank would go to finance a move to a smaller location.

Said Bookshop co-owner Bob Contant: "We'd like to stay in the East Village. We understand the print book business has declined, but we're still doing enough business to keep going, if we had a smaller space with less rent."

No word on plans if they don't get the grant...

In a much-publicized story last fall, landlord Cooper Union agreed to reduce the store's rent to about $17,500 a month from $20,000 for one year, and to forgive $7,000 in debt. But that one year is quickly coming to an end...

Kiss alive

This morning.

Previously.

Plus:
Bowery Boogie
Flaming Pablum

Reader looking for more information about an accident on Bowery and East Fourth Street

In a post on June 18, a resident noted what he considered dangerous pedestrian crossing signals on the Bowery at East Third Street and East Fourth Street... meanwhile, a reader writes in about a recent accident at the intersection... and he could use your help...

On June 22 — just a few days after the article was written on EV Grieve about the dangerous intersections on the Bowery — I was hit by a truck while I was crossing Bowery at E. 4th; and I was in the crosswalk with a walk signal.

I work as a bartender at Standings on E. 7th and was hit after work late Friday around 3 a.m. There were plenty of people around, but because I was taken away to Bellevue due to the seriousness of my injuries, I didn't get to talk to anybody about what happened.

The police report says that driver's statement is that I "walked into his vehicle," even though I had the walk signal and he was turning left from 4th onto Bowery. If anybody happened to see this accident, could you email me? It'd be such a great help.

Thanks
Aaron F.
fischjazz@me.com

Aaron spent the night at Bellevue with various cuts and bruises. The staples came out of the back of his head on Friday. He says that it was a box truck — a white delivery truck with a flat face. He doesn't recall any writing on the truck. Regardless of the injuries, he's grateful that it wasn't any worse...

Did it seem like a lot of people were moving this past weekend?

[East 11th Street Saturday night. Photo by Shawn Chittle]

Of course it's commonplace to see people moving (in or out) at the end of a month... But this month seemed like more than usual... on Saturday morning, during a short walk, I counted 11 moving trucks/vans/station wagons in just a few blocks... anyone else notice more people coming and going...?

East Village reeling over breakup of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes

[Outside Gem Spa Saturday, where the dailies may have sold out really quickly]

East Village residents spent the weekend trying to come to terms with the shocking news that power couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were calling it quits. The Hollywood A-listers were often seen mingling with residents near the home that they owned in the American Felt Building on East 13th Street near Fourth Avenue.

"First Bret Easton Ellis, now this," said one crestfallen Felt Building resident who asked not to be identified. "I feel like my whole property value just plummeted a good six figures."

Given the impending split, divorce experts said that it was unlikely that Holmes would ever set foot in the American Felt Building again as it has been a long-time property of Mr. Cruise dating back to his whirlwind romance with Mimi Rogers.

Down the street at Everyman Espresso, where Holmes was seen at least once, fans tried to come to grips with the fact that they may never have the chance to be in the same cafe as the starlet and her security guards.

[Photo by Bauer Griffin]

"The East Village is now officially dead," declared Spencer Brighton, a 22-year-old playwright who had been working on an off-Broadway musical adaptation of "Dawson's Creek" that he hoped to present to the former Joey Potter. "At this point I might as well just go ahead and move to Brooklyn Heights. Or wherever it is that Michelle Williams lives."

Everyman management refused to comment on rumors that the space will be renamed either Holmes Is Where the Heart Is or Katie Kafe.

However, dayshift manager David Jourgenson did say that he had been approached about showing several screenings of "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" and "Disturbing Behavior" as part of an upcoming Breakup Memorial.

Holmes was no stranger to the neighborhood. For instance, she dined at Northern Sea Food Co. on East 12th Street once.

She also starred in "Pieces of April" in 2003, a darkly comic movie set on Pitt Street on the Lower East Side. During the filming, Holmes often stayed in character as April Burns and hung out at Max Fish and the Parkside.

"She actually came back to my place on Clinton Street for an after hours," said one LES nightlife regular. "None of us had any idea who she was. We thought it was weird that she was carrying a turkey, which turned out to be a prop from the film."

The nightlife regular continued, chuckling at the memories he was recalling.

"She was really laidback and didn't freak when my nose started bleeding from the bad Coke."

Outside St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery late Saturday night, a group of Holmes fans gathered not to mourn but celebrate. "She was the reason that I moved to the East Village," said Jane Kohl, who was gently strumming an acoustic version of Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait." Others in the guitar circle nodded and fought back tears as Kohl softly uttered:

I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
I want to know right now
What will it be

However, not every local was saddened by the news.

"Who cares," growled an off-duty MTA employee eating at the Blimpie on Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street where town cars transporting Holmes, her security team, publicist, assistant, trainer, chef, food taster and nanny would often pass. "She's not even a native New Yorker."

"She's from OHIO," chimed in a large man at another table wearing a "Revis Island" T-shirt. "Toledo no less."

Regardless of where she's from, to the fans who created a memorial outside the American Felt Building, Holmes was one of us.

"Aside from this fairy-tale romance ending," said Jamie McCluskey, shaking his or her head and taking in the scene in front of him or her on East 13th Street, "I'm afraid I'll never see her again.

"Except in the movies," said McCluskey, gazing to the west toward the Regal Union Square Stadium 14. "Except in the movies."

New East Village Hotel may eventually look like a Yes album cover

We've been watching the painting on the new East Village Hotel at 147 First Ave. and East Ninth Street.

Looks like it's still in progress, so we'll check back later... So far, has a little 1970s vinyl art feel to it...

h/t @JacobDAnderson

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Hotel Toshi takes up residency at newly renovated 147 First Avenue

Downtown Auto space now for rent on the Bowery

Downtown Auto & Tire packed up and left the Bowery and Great Jones back in April, relocating to First Avenue and 117th Street ...

Late last week, for rent signs appeared ... putting to rest the neighborhood buzz that the space would become a) an Eddie Bauer store b) a private parking lot or c) a Quicksilver outlet.

There isn't currently any listing information at Ozymandius Realty.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Please meet the next corner of the Bowery primed for something luxurious

The last days of the Downtown Auto and Tire?

The Bowery to get a South Beach diet

Making Faces at the Downtown Tire & Auto Center

AC KOs Iconic Hand Rolls opening weekend

Iconic Hand Rolls opened for business last Thursday night at 135 First Ave. ... unfortunately, as multiple readers noted, Iconic had to close for the weekend due to an AC outage...

Some convenience for Third Avenue shops

There has been some turnover in the strip along Third Avenue that is home to East Village Cheese ... and once housed Atlas Barber School... there's a new business in store for the former optical shop/dry cleaners next door to the cheese shop...

... the signs point to a convenience store; a worker on the scene confirmed it...

Previously.

Report: Cab slams into the Staples on Broadway; 8 people injured

A cab crashed into the Staples on Broadway near Eighth Street this afternoon... Per WABC:

At 2:15 on Sunday afternoon, police say a taxi was trying to avoid a bike on Broadway and E. 8th St. when it slammed into the store. Except eyewitnesses say the driver ended up hitting a cyclist as well, taking the biker through the window.

WABC reports that eight people were taken to Bellevue for non-life-threatening injuries.