Friday, October 25, 2013

On Avenue D, Sergio Deli Superette will yield to a 7-story building


[Google Maps]

Some recent news from BuzzBuzzHome: There's a 7-story mixed-use building in the works for 127 Avenue D near East Ninth Street... currently home to Sergio Deli Superette.

Paperwork filed Monday with the DOB shows that the 11-unit building will have ground-floor retail and 7,932 square feet of residential space.

Per BuzzBuzz, the developer is H Holding Group, whose projects include four luxury townhouses on Degraw Street in Boerum Hill.

Cute dogs in costumes alert for Saturday



The 23rd annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade is tomorrow, noon to 3. (Quick — how many Miley Cyrus and Walter White-inspired costumes will there be?)

Beggin' Stips is the sponsor ... and they apparently made a $10,000 donation to Tompkins Square Park and donated more $3,500 in prizes ... all which was discussed here.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Today's hawk in Tompkins Square Park







Via Bobby Williams...

Today on Avenue C



Via Dave on 7th

Fall on Avenue B


Today, a littler earlier.

Tompkins Square Park, 12:49 p.m., Oct. 24

CB3/SLA highlights: Liquor license applicants for former bakery, pet shop and hardware store

[Something Sweet from February 2012]

Community Board 3 released the agenda for next month's liquor licensing committee meeting... which is split over two nights — Nov. 18 and 19.

We'll take a look at the whole rundown later... until then, three items of interest ... three new liquor licenses for addresses that were previously not bars/restaurants ... for the time being, not much is known about the applicants...

New Liquor License Applications
• DY Schnitz LLC, 177 1st Ave (wb)

There's an applicant looking to take over the former Something Sweet space, the family-owned bakery at East 11th Street.

• Gaia Lounge (Sams 1 Lounge Inc), 103 E 2nd St (wb)

And there's an applicant eyeing the former family-run pet store on East Second Street between First Avenue and Avenue A. They closed in August 2012.

Applications within Saturated Areas
• Cantina LES (Black Fish LLC), 8-10 Ave B (op)

And the former M&M Variety Hardware between Houston and East Second Street looks to become a bar/restaurant serving Mexican fare... the applicants had previously looked at 1 Ludlow St.

[Photo by Goggla]

Nice townhouse for sale of the day: 301 E. 10th St.



This fine townhouse at 301 E. 10th St. hit the market this week... along an equally fine block between Avenue A and Avenue B...





Details per the listing at Garfield:

Set in between several row houses, 301 East 10th Street was originally built in the late 19th Century by architect Joseph Trench in Italianate style as a single-family home. This property was later altered in a fine interpretation of Queen Anne style with raised ceiling heights, changed lintels, sills, and cornice into a multi-family home.

Currently configured as five, gracious floor-through units, four that can be delivered vacant. Ceiling heights range from 9’ to 13’ at Parlor level. Unobstructed, sunlit views overlooking Tompkins Square Park in front, 360 degree unobstructed Manhattan views from the roof including the Cooper Hotel, the Williamsburg Bridge, and the Freedom Tower to the South and the Empire State, Chrysler, and New York Life buildings to the North. Large, north-facing garden and terrace in rear abutting a historic carriage house on 11th street.

First public offering in over twenty-five years with endless opportunities to renovate and create a strong rent roll, create a 2,700 garden duplex or an upper duplex with fantastic roof deck. Property is currently under built by approximately 3,300 square feet.





Asking price: $7.5 million.

Now will Extra Place become Extra special?

[ Image via Forgotten New York]

Extra Place has been a fairly popular topic here through the years... about six to be exact.

We first heard of the plans the developers of Avalon Bowery Place had for the former alley that ran behind CBGB six-plus years ago ... Extra Place would become "a slice of the Left Bank, a pedestrian mall lined with interesting boutiques and cafes."


Sure!

To date, nothing has really worked. The latest casualties appear to be sister restaurants Extra Place and Heidi. And across East First Street Veselka Bowery was never a good fit. Other businesses have come and gone. It didn't help that it took four years to finally replace the roadway with a sidewalk and to add lights to Extra Place.

It was still Extra Place though.


Now some big names will give it a whirl. The Times reported that Momofuku Ko will move from First Avenue to Extra Place. And Eater heard that restaurateur John McDonald has signed a lease for a steakhouse/oyster place in the former Veselka Bowery. (Grub Street confirmed it.)

Add this two places to the seemingly popular Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken and L'Apicio nearby in Avalon Bowery Place... an instant upscale dining destination?

As we've asked before about new places coming to Extra Place: Is this all enough to ward off the ghosts of the Bowery's past?

Previously on EV Grieve:
With new restaurant opening, will Extra Place finally become a dining destination?

Extra Place now officially a Dead End

Extra Place and Heidi currently 'closed for renovation' in Extra Place

You have a little longer to get gas on Avenue C

[EVG file photos]

Last fall, The Real Deal reported that the Mobil station on Avenue C and East Houston been sold to a brokerage firm for $8 million.

Existing zoning allows for 43,000 square feet of residential development on the parcel, which has 120 feet of frontage on Houston Street, according to The Real Deal.

We all figured the station would be a goner soon enough.

Apparently not that soon.

The Times had a piece yesterday titled Manhattan's Vanishing Gas Stations. The piece offered a few more details on what's next here.... and when.

[A] rental building will rise on the site when the station’s lease expires in two years, according to HPNY, a development firm that is a partner in the project.

The 12-story rental building will encompass 43,000 square feet of apartments, as well as 6,000 square feet of ground-floor stores, which will wrap three sides, HPNY said.

So two more years here.

And it is not your imagination that gas stations are disappearing around the city.

In October, there were 117 stations in Manhattan, down from 207 in 2004, or a 44 percent decrease, according to the city’s Bureau of Fire Prevention. The city as a whole has 35 percent fewer stations than it did a decade ago, according to the data.

And I'll repeat this from a previous post:

Now I'm not lamenting the loss of gas stations... I don't have a car... and, even with an occasional rental, have never used either East Village gas station... I'll echo the sentiments of Jeremiah Moss on the matter: "And while I'm not a fan of oil, I like gas stations for their smudgy, blue-collar existence, and their vanishing from the face of Manhattan is worth noting."


Previously on EV Grieve:
How much longer will the East Village have gas stations?

The East Village will soon be down to 1 gas station

The Mobil on Avenue C is still going strong — for now

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Report: CB3 won't reverse its suspension decision about the L.E.S. Dwellers

Despite criticism from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Community Board 3 will not reverse its decision about the suspension of block association group the L.E.S. Dwellers for the remainder of the year, The Lo-Down reported.

During its full Board meeting last night, Chairperson Gigi Li reportedly said that she would convene a group to draft new policies governing how the board works with block associations.

Per The Lo-Down:

[B]oard member Chad Marlow proposed a motion to reverse the suspension and to mandate that future actions against block associations must be approved by the full board. But a vote never took place because, through the use of a parliamentary maneuver, the board voted instead on an alternative motion to table the original proposal, which if it had passed would have represented a public embarrassment for Li. Only Marlow and one other member, Julie Ulmet, opposed the “motion to table.” Three others abstained.

Find more details on the meeting over at The Lo-Down.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Breaking Badly: LES Dwellers demand impartial investigation of Community Board 3 (33 comments)

More details about the new Russ & Daughters Café coming to Orchard Street

Word came down last month that the nearly 100-year-old smoked fish and herring store on East Houston was going to open a 65-seat café space around the corner at 127 Orchard St.

Today, The Daily Meal published a Q-and-A with fourth-generation co-owner Niki Russ Federman about the new space. Federman offered up several details, such as if the new space will have that counter culture of the mothership:

That is so critical in how we’re designing the space, trying to bring that counter experience and that human interaction to the new café. So there will be an open slicing area where you can watch the slicing happen, and actually you’ll be able to see it better than you can in the store. Right now you have to peek down poke around, There, we’ll have a slicing counter [and] an old-school soda fountain making our egg creams. There’s going to be almost like a luncheonette counter where you can sit down as you’re watching all the food come together, and you still have that over-the-counter interaction.

The Russ & Daughters Café is aiming for a mid-February opening.

Meanwhile, in other news about LES institutions, BoweryBoogie has a recap of the gallery opening at the The Space At Katz’s.

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: Tom Kopache and Chia
Occupation: Actor
Location: 5th Street between 1st and 2nd
Time: 5:50 on Friday, Oct. 18

My family moved a lot but I did a lot of my growing up on the West Coast. Then, after college and grad school I joined a theatre company that went to Europe. After Europe, I came here thinking I was only going to be here a year or two, but I ended up staying till now. I moved to the Upper West Side in 1976 and to East 3rd Street in 1983.

I’m an actor. It’s what I majored in in college and grad school. I work in theatre, film and TV, when I get the work. It’s an up-and-down profession but it’s been alright for me. I’ve been able to earn a living. I worked at La MaMa for many years. I worked at the Manhattan Theatre Club when they were in their old space. I did a couple of Broadway Shows and then TV and film work.

My favorite roles that I’ve played were a few from Shakespeare ... I played Macbeth at La MaMa and "Measure for Measure" when I was in Europe. And I’ve enjoyed some of my TV parts, but those parts were predicative.

I have to say, I’m glad a lot of the changes have taken place here. It was a rough area in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The drug scene was out of hand and the buildings were really run-down. There was a high crime rate. You had to watch yourself. Back then I was a young guy. I was a tough guy so I held my own.

I remember a girlfriend came to visit me on 3rd Street and she came up to my apartment. We had a nice time together and she said, “I will never come here again. If you want to see me you come up to the Upper West Side.” It was that kind of place. That relationship didn’t last very long. I liked my neighborhood, but I knew what she meant. It was tough and she wasn’t used to that kind of scene.

Some of the gentrification has gone a little overboard and [the neighborhood has] lost some of its character, but the streets are better. I like a lot of the changes. The arts are still here. I heard somebody say that the artists were leaving but there’s theatre here and a lot of little theatre companies. There’s a lot of painters and dancers. All-in-all it’s cleaned up a bit, but I think for the better. And there are good restaurants and coffee shops. Every block has got something. It didn’t used to be that way.

I’m heading to Social Tees right here. I’m a volunteer. They rescue animals, they adopt, they do fostering, and they take volunteers to do things like this, walking dogs. They’re a community-oriented group and they care about the community and taking care of the animals.

This is Chia. He’s an old guy. He’s been a shelter dog for awhile, but he’s a very gentle, sweet dog, and he’s up for adoption — if anyone’s looking for a nice, friendly little, I think you call him a Terrier mix. He’s low key. Not a yapper.

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

'Potential townhouse conversion' a possibility at residential building now for sale at 58 E. 7th St.



58 E. Seventh St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue recently hit the market. The listing at Eastern Consolidated mentions that this is a "potential townhouse conversion."

More details:

The Property is a five-story-over-full-basement, circa 1900, walk up apartment building containing ±6,792 square feet of above-grade building area divided into (5) five apartments. Each apartment contains approximately 1,300 square feet and has 3 bedrooms, a spacious eat-in kitchen area, a living room and one bathroom.

There's certainly precedent for townhouse conversion on this very block... just a few numbers to the east at No. 64.



64 E. Seventh St. was sold as a single-family townhouse several years ago... and gut rehabbed into a luxury, 13-room mansion. It seems likely that history will repeat itself on the block. (Read this post at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York for more on the fascinating past of No. 64.)

Con Ed making strides so that the East 13th Street substation doesn't explode again

[14th and C last Nov. 4 via faces]

On Monday, Con Ed officials unveiled the repaired substation on East 13th Street nearly a year after Hurricane Sandy.

As you'll painfully recall, the storm surge caused a relay station inside the substation off of Avenue C to explode, leaving the lower half of Manhattan eating peanut butter, drinking warm beer and [______] in bags, among many other things worse than that.

Con Ed issued this video to show their improvements to its systems as part of a $1 billion plan to fortify critical infrastructure from major storms. Per Con Ed officials: Overhead equipment is now tougher and more resilient. Substations have new walls and raised equipment. Gas and steam infrastructure also is protected with water-proofing measures.

And here's WABC with a report... Last November, Fortune published an inside look at the Con Ed's Sandy experience. Find that here.

Here's Golden Cadillac, the '70s-nostalgic bar' opening at the former Boca Chica space

Boca Chica, the inexpensive Latin American restaurant on First Avenue at First Street, closed its doors back in February.

By April, we learned about the bar-restaurant called Golden Cadillac that was in the works for the space... it's the latest venture from Giuseppe Gonzalez, a bartender who has worked at places we've never been before like PKNY, Clover Club, Dutch Kills and Flatiron Lounge.

Eater had more details on Golden Cadillac yesterday...

The food from Miguel Trinidad, the chef behind Maharlika and Jeepney:

[T]he food menu ... consists of variations on New York classics that have been 'inspired by vintage editions of Gourmet Magazine.' A few of those dishes include knish fondue, a Monte Cristo, and hunters stew for four.

The drinks:

There's "a menu of 'classic' 70s-era cocktails like the grasshopper and the Miami Vice (that's a pina colada topped off with strawberry daiquiri)."

The decor:

The bar's aesthetic takes its cues from the "sad glamour" of a seedy late-70s dive bar, furnished inside with wood paneling and patterned wallpaper mixed with mirrored surfaces.

The opening date is set for Nov. 6. And this isn't the first time that we've heard about Golden Cadillac. Time Out reported in November 2011 that the bar was opening on East 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. But that never materialized, for whatever reasons.


[The mural on the rolldown gate from the other week]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Boca Chica apparently won't be reopening on First Avenue; and the return of Golden Cadillac

So is this what James Renwick, Jr. had in mind when he designed 27 Stuyvesant St. in the 1860s?



Via Curbed, we learn that the Anglo-Italianate townhome at 27 Stuyvesant St. is back on the market for $5.25 million. (Original asking price was $6.7 million.)

It's a beautiful townhousehome — especially from the outside. And, per the listing, it was designed in 1861 by James Renwick, renowned architect responsible for the Smithsonian Institution and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, among other renowned structures.

And this inside? It has been staged to sell...





Not sure how to describe this decor — Early 21st Century Real Housewives Revival?

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Today's fall shot



Tompkins Square Park in the late afternoon via Bobby Williams...

Noted



I read about this last week... but just saw it for myself tonight... last Thursday, Uniqlo opened a pop-up shop selling puffy jackets and non-puffy parkas in the Union Square subway station ... part of a new MTA program to bring businesses into vacant retail subway spaces.

From the official MTA news release:

The shops will receive month-to-month leases from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for small retail spaces that are temporarily vacant while the agency is arranging long-term leases.

And!

The pop-up store initiative allows small entrepreneurs, online businesses and established corporations to rent space in generally “as-is” condition to provide high visibility exposure for products or services where the emphasis is on displaying merchandise as much as actually conducting on-site transactions. In some cases, retail customers would be encouraged to make their purchases online or at larger stores off site.

And!

“Pop-up stores will provide a fresh and beneficial element to our stations while also improving the image and desirability of retail space in the subway,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast. “This is another example of the MTA working to make better use of its real estate portfolio and improving the subway environment for customers at the same time.”

The store will be open through the December holidays...

Soooo... what kind of pop-up shop would you like to see from the MTA in the future? (To get you thinking about it...) Egg shop? Zine store?

Roseland Ballroom makes closure official



On Saturday, we posted the scoop from Billboard about the Roseland Ballroom's closure... at the time of Billboard's report, there hadn't been any announcement from Roseland's ownership.

They made the it formal today with the following release received via the EVG inbox...

NYC’S ROSELAND BALLROOM SCHEDULES CLOSING IN 2014

Today, Roseland Ballroom announced that it will cease operations in April 2014. Roseland Development Associates, LLC, owners of Roseland, issued the following statement in response to media reports about the venue’s closure next year:

“The owners of 239 West 52nd Street have operated the Roseland Ballroom for over three decades. Managing Roseland has been a labor of love, which is why we have deferred major changes for all these years. Plans to redevelop the property are now underway and will be made public when they are finalized. Roseland will cease operations at the end of April 2014.”

Live Nation, the world’s leading live entertainment company, which has had an exclusive music booking agreement with Roseland Ballroom since 1990, issued the following statement:

“We enjoyed being a part of the history of the Roseland Ballroom and we will continue to celebrate its rich history with an unparalleled closing run of shows. One of the best things about New York is how our city continues to reinvent itself and we look forward to sharing our tremendous plans for live entertainment in the city for 2014 and beyond.”

The space was a sentimental favorite for me... and I agree with an anonymous commenter's thoughts on the Roseland:

Lets face it, the audio was awful and the air conditioning was worthless.

But you could get up close if you felt like it and the mosh pits were great.

One of my favorite places to see a show and I will miss it.

Image via Frankie Gale Photo Gallery